老澳门开奖结果

SEATTLE 鈥� The 老澳门开奖结果 filed a motion today seeking to join Microsoft鈥檚 lawsuit challenging gag orders that prevent the company from telling its customers when the government has ordered it to turn over their data.

The 老澳门开奖结果 filed a motion in federal district court to intervene in the case brought last month by Microsoft, which said it supports the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 intervention. The 老澳门开奖结果 seeks to join the case on its own behalf as an organization that relies on Microsoft鈥檚 products.

Using warrants issued under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, the government forces technology companies 鈥� thousands of times per year 鈥� to hand over customers鈥� emails, photos, documents, and other files stored online. Several technology firms, including Microsoft, Google, and Apple, have a policy of notifying customers when this happens, but often the companies are prevented from doing so because of gag orders that accompany the demands for information. Microsoft鈥檚 lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of those gag orders because they often have the effect of denying Microsoft鈥檚 customers of any notice that the government has acquired their information.

In seeking to join the lawsuit, the 老澳门开奖结果 praised Microsoft鈥檚 policy of providing notice and argued that the Fourth Amendment separately requires the government to notify Microsoft鈥檚 customers itself. The 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 complaint says that the government鈥檚 practice of searching and seizing individuals鈥� electronic communications without providing notice is unconstitutional.

鈥淎 basic promise of our Constitution is that the government must notify you at some point when it searches or seizes your private information,鈥� said Alex Abdo, a senior staff attorney with the 老澳门开奖结果 Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. 鈥淣otice serves as a crucial check on executive power, and it has been a regular and constitutionally required feature of searches and seizures since the nation鈥檚 founding. The government has managed to circumvent this critical protection in the digital realm for decades, but Microsoft鈥檚 lawsuit offers the courts an opportunity to correct course.鈥�

Microsoft has that it received more than 5,000 federal demands for customer information or data between September 2014 and March 2016. Nearly half of those demands were accompanied by gag orders preventing Microsoft from notifying the affected customers that the government had requested their information. The majority of those gag orders contained no time limit.

The 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 motion to intervene is here:
/legal-document/microsoft-v-doj-aclu-motion-intervene

The 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 complaint is here:
/legal-document/microsoft-v-doj-aclu-proposed-complaint