US Fights Microsoft's Bid to Tell Users When Feds Take Data

The U.S. Justice Department asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit from Microsoft and keep a law that prohibits technology companies from telling customers when the government demands their electronic data.

Microsoft says its customers have a constitutional right to know when the government collects their private information during criminal investigations. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act compels companies to divulge the data and keep the move secret, violating the company’s First Amendment right to speak with its customers, according to its complaint filed last year.

“People need to get notice when the government comes knocking at the door to seize all that stuff that historically would have been stored in a file cabinet,” Microsoft lawyer Stephen Rummage told U.S. District Judge James Robart.

Companies including Apple, Twitter and Amazon as well as media outlets such as The Associated Press, the Seattle Times and Washington Post filed court briefs supporting Microsoft.