US judge lifts order on Microsoft to reveal emails stored overseas

A US judge yesterday suspended her order directing Microsoft to turn over a customer's emails stored overseas to US prosecutors, Reuters reported. The software company, however said it would not release any emails while it appealed the ruling.

Chief judge Loretta Preska of the US District Court in Manhattan had on 31 July upheld a magistrate judge's ruling on the emails, which had been held in a data centre in Ireland (See: Microsoft required to turn over customer's emails stored abroad: US Judge).

That prospect had drawn concern from technology companies - worried over loss of revenue from foreign customers amid signs  that US law enforcement might win broad power to seize their data.

Microsoft would, however, not hand over overseas email to US prosecutors, court orders notwithstanding.

The case comes as the first in which a corporation had challenged a US search warrant seeking data held abroad.

Microsoft particularly suffered acute loss of face due to revelations by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and had sought to impress on customers that it did not allow the US government unchallenged access to personal data on its servers.

Preska had delayed enforcement of the government's search warrant to allow appeal by Microsoft.

Meanwhile, according to Microsoft, customer email deserved the same legal protections that US mail and the contents of telephone conversations currently enjoyed. Barry Seltzer writing in ZD Net said, the warrant had, in this case been issued under the Stored Communications Act using a less-stringent standard.

According to Microsoft, the Friday order was itself subject to appeal and said it had filed notice of intent to do so. The government maintained that the order was not appealable at this stage, and judge Preska agreed.