Microsoft v. United States (2016)

Microsoft v. United States
CourtUnited States District Court for the Western District of Washington
Full case name Microsoft Corporation v. The United States Department of Justice, and Loretta Lynch, in her official capacity as Attorney General of the United States
DefendantsUnited States Department of Justice, Loretta Lynch
PlaintiffMicrosoft
Keywords
Search warrant, electronic surveillance

Microsoft Corporation v. United States of America was a complaint for declaratory judgment action filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington.[1] At issue was the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act.[2][3] with Microsoft arguing that secrecy orders were preventing them from disclosing warrants to customers in violation of the company's and customers' rights.[4][2] The case was started in April 2016[2] and although the government bid for dismissal of the suit,[3] in February 2017 a federal judge set a trial date set for June 2018.[5] Microsoft was supported in its lawsuit by companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google,[6] Dropbox and Salesforce.[5] The case was dropped by Microsoft in October 2017 after policy changes at the Department of Justice.[7][3][6][5][8][9] Although no laws were changed,[3] the new DOJ policy "changed data request rules on alerting Internet users about agencies accessing their information," and mandated defined periods of time for secrecy orders from the government.[4] Although the change represented "most of what Microsoft was asking for,"[9] Microsoft did not rule out future litigation.[3]

  1. ^ Complaint for Declaratory Judgment, Microsoft Corporation v. United States Department of Justice et al, Case No. 2:16-cv-00538 (filed 2014-04-14, W.D. Wash.).
  2. ^ a b c "Microsoft sues government for secret searches", CNN, Jose Pagliery, April 14, 2016
  3. ^ a b c d e "U.S. Will Curb ‘Sneak-and-Peek’ Searches Microsoft Sued Over", Bloomberg, Dina Bass and Chris Strohm, October 23, 2017
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference VB was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c "DOJ changes “gag order” policy, Microsoft to drop lawsuit", ArsTechnica, Cyrus Farivar, October 24, 2017
  6. ^ a b "Microsoft drops its lawsuit over gag orders on DoJ searches", Engadget, Richard Lawler, October 24, 2017
  7. ^ "Microsoft to drop lawsuit after U.S. government revises data request rules", Reuters, October 23, 2017
  8. ^ "US DoJ eases gagging rules, Microsoft drops data slurp alert lawsuit", The Register, Rebecca Hill, October 24, 2017
  9. ^ a b "Microsoft Drops Lawsuit As DoJ Reins In Use Of Gagging Orders", Forbes, Emma Woollacott, October 24, 2017