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EFF Applauds Microsoft for Suing the US Government over Gag Orders

Microsoft wants to tell users when the govt reads mails

Apr 18, 2016 07:56 GMT  ·  By
Microsoft says the govt is violating two fundamental rights
   Microsoft says the govt is violating two fundamental rights

Microsoft sued the US government last week for what it claims to be unconstitutional access to data stored in the cloud without letting owners know about it.

It goes without saying that Microsoft’s decision to file a legal complaint against the government was well received by privacy advocates in the United States, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was one of the first to react.

In a statement for ThreatPost, EFF officials praised Microsoft’s for the fight against the government and reminded that US law enforcement agencies are indeed turning to unconstitutional moves to access user data.

“We applaud Microsoft for challenging government gag orders that prevent companies from being more transparent with their customers about government searches of their data,” said Andrew Crocker, staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

“In nearly all cases, indefinite gag orders and gag orders issued routinely rather than in exceptional cases are unconstitutional prior restraints on free speech and infringe on First Amendment rights,” he pointed out.

Vague orders sent to Microsoft

In a press release published last week, Microsoft said that it received no less than 2,600 requests from the government to provide access to cloud data belonging to its customers, without being allowed to disclose it to users.

Furthermore, it added, many of these orders had no fixed end date, meaning that Redmond couldn’t estimate when the investigations were scheduled to end so that they could inform customers about it.

Redmond says that all these actions violate two fundamental rights in the United States, namely the First and the Fourth Amendments.

“The constitutional right to free speech is subject only to restraints narrowly tailored to serve compelling governmental interests, a standard that is neither required by the statute being applied nor met by the government in practice here,” Redmond concluded, calling for the Department of Justice and the Congress to adopt new policies that would better handle secrecy orders.