Ireland: US must request emails from us in Microsoft’s data center

The Irish government has expressed its support for Microsoft’s position in the case over e-mail retrieval from Microsoft’s Dublin data center. According to Ireland, the US must request the data from the government, as part of a mutual cooperation agreement.

Ireland’s Department of Justice and the country’s data protection minister have expressed their support for Microsoft’s position to the New York appellate court, which is hearing the Microsoft-US case. “We have a mutual legal framework for cooperation in criminal matters. It remains preferable to follow that path, including for the handing over of data,” the Irish Minister for Data Protection said.

According to him, the right of individuals to protection of personal data is ‘an essential part of a modern society and the growing digital economy’. He also speaks of ‘warm bilateral ties’ with the US and ‘excellent cooperation in many areas’.

Microsoft faced some legal setbacks in the lawsuit, but recently gained support from a host of tech companies, including Apple, Amazon, HP and eBay. Microsoft refused to provide webmail account data from an Irish data center because it believes that existing law cannot oblige it to hand over customer data from another country. The judge then tapped the software maker several times on the fingers.