Microsoft sues US government over demands for customer data

Microsoft is taking the US government to court over a federal law that allowed authorities to examine its users' email or online files without their knowledge.

''People do not give up their rights when they move their private information from physical storage to the cloud,'' Microsoft said in the lawsuit, adding the government ''has exploited the transition to cloud computing as a means of expanding its power to conduct secret investigations.''

The Department of Justice is reviewing the filing, spokeswoman Emily Pierce said.

The standoff comes as the latest in a series of disputes between the tech industry and US officials over individual privacy rights.

Law enforcement seeks access to information - including emails, photos and financial records - that customers stored on electronic gadgets as also in "cloud" computing centres.

Microsoft contends that the justice department was abusing the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which empowered authorities to obtain court orders requiring it to turn over customer files stored on its servers.

Under the law, in certain cases, companies could also be barred from notifying the customers about the investigation. Microsoft said in addition to violation of its constitutional right to free speech, the "non-disclosure" also fell afoul of its customers' right to protection against unreasonable searches.

Meanwhile, Apple Inc and the government are set to clash again over another iPhone, this one seized from a drug dealer in Brooklyn.

Earlier, the FBI had sought backdoors to an iPhone used by a terrorist, only a few weeks back, but dropped the case after a third party offered to assist it break the phone. The terrorist along with his wife, killed 14 people last year in San Bernardino, California.

According to commentators the issue would not be resolved anytime soon as Microsoft and Apple argue the future of mobile and cloud computing would be imperiled if customers harboured doubts about the privacy of their data.