Privacy campaigners have hailed last week’s decision from the US State Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan as a victory for the future of data privacy and a major landmark in the evolving legal and regulatory framework for global data. On Thursday, the court ruled that Microsoft was not obliged to grant US Justice Department authorities access to emails stored on the company’s servers in Ireland, despite the government having obtained a warrant to access the emails under the Stored Communications Act. The decision overturned an earlier ruling that Microsoft has been fighting since 2014.

Outdated regulation

The appeals court ruling provides some clarity around modern applications of the Stored Communications Act, which – as you’d expect from a piece of legislation pertaining to data and digital communications penned in 1986 – has unclear implications given the realities of current digital communication and cloud computing. The US Department of Justice initially obtained a warrant for the emails in question as part of its investigation into a suspected administrator of online black market platform Silk Road. However, Microsoft refused to release the emails stored on its Irish servers, arguing that the warrant was only valid for information stored in the United States. Though the DoJ countered that the physical location of the data was irrelevant so long as it was under Microsoft’s control, the court eventually upheld Microsoft’s position.

Victory for privacy

‘This decision provides a major victory for the protection of people’s privacy under their own laws rather than the reach of foreign governments,’ said Microsoft chief legal officer Brad Smith of the successful appeal. Lawyers from more than 80 fellow tech companies had filed amicus briefs in support of Microsoft’s efforts to quash the warrant, including Apple, Amazon and Cisco. 

Sources: New York Times; Quartz; Australasian Lawyer; Lexology