The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Thursday that Microsoft [corporate website] is not required to hand over customers’ e-mails held overseas to the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website]. The case was initiated when Microsoft sued the DOJ over their request for customer data held in Ireland. Microsoft claimed [complaint, PDF] that a particular section of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act [materials] was unconstitutional as it goes against their First Amendment and their customers’ Fourth Amendment rights. Microsoft alleged that the federal government was violating these rights by preventing Microsoft from notifying its customers about government requests for their emails.

The intersection between technology and privacy continues to raise important questions. In April the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled [JURIST report] that obtaining phone location records without a warrant was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Last November the US Supreme Court rejected a case [JURIST report] to determine whether it is necessary to obtain a search warrant when law enforcement requests access to cell phone location data. In October California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law [JURIST report] the California Electronic Communications Act, a law that many are touting as a substantial step forward for digital privacy and protecting users’ rights. The law, which was approved alongside more than 10 other bills, bars any state’s law enforcement agency or other investigative entity from requesting sensitive metadata from persons or businesses without a warrant. Also in October the European Court of Justice ruled [JURIST report] that EU user data transferred to the US by various technology companies is not sufficiently protected.