Cloud giant
Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) has won a major data storage case, the result of which may have implications for the whole cloud industry. Microsoft was fighting a ruling that it should be forced to handover data from emails that was stored on its servers, not in the United States, but in Ireland – an entirely different sovereign state.
In July 2014 Chief Judge Loretta Preska of the US district court in Manhattan upheld a magistrate judge’s ruling that Microsoft should hand over emails stored at its Irish data center. The company was keen to fight the ruling as a means of minimizing damage caused by Edward Snowden's revelations in 2013 that the United States' National Security Agency (NSA) monitored major email providers, including Microsoft.
Last Thursday’s ruling, delivered by Circuit Judge Susan Carney, suggests the Stored Communications Act (SCA) does not cover data held overseas. This means Microsoft will not have to hand over emails as required by US Department of Justice, who were investigating a Silk Road-related narcotics case.
“This Court should not endorse that view, which risks placing US providers at a significant competitive disadvantage in foreign markets,” explained the ruling. “This Court should conclude that the SCA does not authorize US courts to issue warrants that operate extraterritorially to compel providers to disclose foreign information lacking a substantial nexus to the US.”
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