Microsoft is suing the Department of Justice over its requests to access customer data stored in the cloud, expanding the fight between US technology companies and Washington over privacy concerns.
Microsoft’s lawsuit takes aim at the DoJ’s practice of issuing “secrecy orders” that ban Microsoft from telling customers when their information is being accessed by the government. It names Loretta Lynch, the US Attorney General, as a defendant.
Microsoft says this practice, which is legal under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, violates its customers’ Fourth Amendment right to know when they are being searched and violates Microsoft’s First Amendment right to speak about these investigations.