Apple and Cisco are the latest to come forward and publicly support Microsoft in its battle against US authorities over cloud data access.
Microsoft, last week, objected a US government order which demanded the software giant to hand over customer email data stored in Redmond’s Dublin data centre to the US regulators, arguing that the government’s order to search the Dublin facility “would violate international law and treaties, and reduce the privacy protection of everyone on the planet.”
“We’re continuing to challenge this search warrant in the courts as promised on behalf of our customers who expect and deserve basic privacy rights,” Microsoft said.
“The US government can’t execute a search warrant in other countries, and we don’t believe it has the authority to ask Microsoft to do what it can’t.”
Redmond in its appeal said that the government should rather opt for a so-called mutual legal assistance treaty, or MLAT to access such kind of data.
Both Apple and Cisco filed a “friend of the court” brief last Friday adding their support for Microsoft’s position.
Apple and Cisco’s joint filing read, “In rejecting Microsoft’s motion to vacate the search warrant, the Magistrate erred by failing to consider the conflicting obligations under foreign and domestic law that arise when courts order providers to produce data about foreign users stored in foreign countries.”
“By omitting this evaluation—and by dismissing the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (“MLAT”) process out of hand with no factual findings regarding the Irish MLAT at issue—the Magistrate placed the burden of reconciling conflicting international laws squarely on U.S. providers.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Verizon and AT&T are the other big names who have already lent their support for the cause.
