In a bold move, tech giant Microsoft filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for hiding the government’s email data requests from the public with gag orders.
“This is not a decision we made lightly,” the company wrote in a blog post announcing the suit.
We believe that with rare exceptions consumers and businesses have a right to know when the government accesses their emails or records. Yet it’s becoming routine for the U.S. government to issue orders that require email providers to keep these types of legal demands secret. We believe that this goes too far and we are asking the courts to address the situation.
In the lawsuit filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Microsoft claims the Justice Department inappropriately uses the 30-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to justify forcing data storage, email, and internet service providers into giving up customer data for criminal investigations.
Microsoft recognizes in its post that there are legitimate reasons for the government to keep requests for an individual’s data secret, such as when there is risk of imminent harm.
“But based on the many secrecy orders we have received, we question whether these orders are grounded in specific facts that truly demand secrecy,” Microsoft wrote. “To the contrary, it appears that the issuance of secrecy orders has become too routine.”
Microsoft reportedly received more than 2,500 government requests for data in the last 18 months. Sixty-eight percent of those orders prevent Microsoft from ever notifying customers of the government’s data request.
Thursday’s lawsuit is Microsoft’s fourth legal challenge against the Justice Department, and is part of a long battle over emails and data stored in servers across the globe. It’s also Silicon Valley’s latest salvo against the U.S. government’s data-gathering practices.
The Justice Department ended its court fight with Apple in March after it was able to crack the iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters without the company’s help. That battle unearthed a heated discussion over privacy, security, and the government’s use of old or outdated laws to compel tech companies to heed court orders.
Since the 2013 NSA document leaks, tech companies have fought for more transparency surrounding government requests for consumer information. But high-profile conflicts such as Microsoft’s and Apple’s are testing the legal limits of the government’s ability to gather data, while putting pressure on Congress and the public to come up with solutions.
“If the DOJ doesn’t act, then we hope that Congress will,” Microsoft wrote.