Microsoft: ‘Law Is on the Side of Privacy’

Microsoft filed its reply brief in its “ongoing legal challenge to the U.S. government’s attempt to force us to turn over a customer’s email stored in our Irish data center,” Executive Vice President-Legal and Corporate Affairs Brad Smith said in a blog post Thursday. “As we stated in our brief, we believe the law is on the side of privacy in this case,” Smith said. “This case is about how we best protect privacy, ensure that governments keep people safe, and respect national sovereignty while preserving the global nature of the Internet.” Microsoft doesn’t completely agree with the government, but “outdated electronic privacy laws need to be modernized,” he said. “Law enforcement needs to be able to do its job, but it needs to do it in a way that respects fundamental rights, including the personal privacy of people around the world and the sovereignty of other nations,” Smith said. “Until U.S. law is rewritten, we believe that the court in our case should honor well-established precedents that limit the government’s reach from extending beyond U.S. borders.”