U.S. Judge Says Cloud Providers Must Hand Over Overseas Data If [...]
U.S. Judge Says Cloud Providers Must Hand Over Overseas Data If Requested By Government
📅 - In a recent court ruling, a U.S. federal judge ruled that cloud providers must hand over overseas data if requested by the government.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis's ruling comes in response to a challenge from Microsoft regarding one of its Irish customers, claiming that the company should not have to give the government the customers information because it was stored outside of the U.S., CloudComputingNews reports.
“Federal courts are without authority to issue warrants for the search and seizure of property outside the territorial limits of the United States,” explained Judge Francis. “Therefore, Microsoft concludes, to the extent that the warrant here requires acquisition of information from Dublin, it is unauthorized and must be quashed.”
“That analysis, while not inconsistent with the statutory language, is undermined by the structure of the SCA (Stored Communications Act), by its legislative history, and by the practical consequences that would flow from adopting it.”
Microsoft said they would appeal the ruling, with hopes of bringing the case to the highest court.
“When we filed this challenge we knew the path would need to start with a magistrate judge, and that we'd eventually have the opportunity to bring the issue to a US district court judge and probably to a federal court of appeals,” stated Microsoft Deputy General Counsel, David Howard.
In recent months, cloud providers have been looking for ways around to protect their customer's data, with Microsoft giving customers the option to choose where their data is stored and Google reportedly looking for ways to make offshore servers.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis's ruling comes in response to a challenge from Microsoft regarding one of its Irish customers, claiming that the company should not have to give the government the customers information because it was stored outside of the U.S., CloudComputingNews reports.
“Federal courts are without authority to issue warrants for the search and seizure of property outside the territorial limits of the United States,” explained Judge Francis. “Therefore, Microsoft concludes, to the extent that the warrant here requires acquisition of information from Dublin, it is unauthorized and must be quashed.”
“That analysis, while not inconsistent with the statutory language, is undermined by the structure of the SCA (Stored Communications Act), by its legislative history, and by the practical consequences that would flow from adopting it.”
Microsoft said they would appeal the ruling, with hopes of bringing the case to the highest court.
“When we filed this challenge we knew the path would need to start with a magistrate judge, and that we'd eventually have the opportunity to bring the issue to a US district court judge and probably to a federal court of appeals,” stated Microsoft Deputy General Counsel, David Howard.
In recent months, cloud providers have been looking for ways around to protect their customer's data, with Microsoft giving customers the option to choose where their data is stored and Google reportedly looking for ways to make offshore servers.
Reads: 1597 | Category: General | Source: TheHN : The Hosting News
Want to add a website news or press release ? Just do it, it's free! Use add web hosting news!