In case you haven’t been following the news lately, Microsoft has an ongoing suit against the United States government around the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The Act essentially states that when government officials want information about a particular user, the company cannot reveal this to the user.
Microsoft is fighting this in court, and has been seeing support from other tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Google and even BP Oil and several former FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, among others.
According to a Reuters report, in a “friend-of-the-court briefs by nonparticipants” filing done last week, several companies from the technology, oil&gas, pharmaceuticals and media fields supported Microsoft’s stand.
Essentially, while the EPCA’s defense lies in the fact that there is “compelling interest in keeping criminal investigations confidential,” Microsoft’s stand is that hiding this information from its customer is “unconstitutional.”
“Microsoft says the government is violating the Fourth Amendment, which establishes the right for people and businesses to know if the government searches or seizes their property, in addition to Microsoft’s First Amendment right to free speech.”
It is not known whether the briefs filed will have any impact on the outcome of the case, but the DOJ is sticking to its guns, saying that criminal investigations need to be kept confidential. Whether or not the briefs sway the final ruling, the sheer breadth of support for Microsoft hints that the 30-year-old EPCA may need to be revisited in the digital age of cloud.
With the lawsuit now gaining wide publicity, the DOJ will need to tread carefully through the issue. It is a simple case of privacy versus the basic need of a criminal investigation to be conducted in secrecy, but the implications of the decision are so broad and deep that they will directly impact millions of users of technology and other services. If Microsoft prevails, it will set a precedent for other companies to be open about ongoing investigations.
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