Microsoft sues US government for ‘routine secrecy’ data requests

Microsoft has sued the US government over its obligation to keep data requests it receives from the government secret. According to the Redmond-based company, that secrecy has become routine and against the constitution.

Microsoft has filed suit against the US Department of Justice in Seattle district court. According to the company, the confidentiality requirement under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 violates the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which would give Americans the right to notify if the government searches their property. In addition, it would also conflict with the First Amendment, which would grant Microsoft the right to communicate to customers how government actions affect their data.

Microsoft states that it can imagine that secrecy around data requests is required in exceptional cases, but the company wonders whether this was the case with the requests received, given the amount of requests. “On the contrary, it seems that the secret requests have become routine,” Microsoft said.

In 18 months, Microsoft had to silence 2,576 data release requests from customers, 68 percent of which had no end date set. “This means that we are forever prohibited from informing customers about this.” Microsoft is calling on policymakers to amend the law, taking transparency, digital neutrality and necessity as the guiding principle.