Microsoft has taken a stand by refusing to hand over emails to the U.S. government from the Dublin data center, and this particularly bold move comes across after a New York District Court Judge’s order was purposed last Friday. Judge Loretta Preska ruled in the favor of the government, citing that the government is able to continue with the retrieval of emails in foreign data centers, but the software giant has steadfastly refused to follow the court’s order. Not only that, Microsoft is unable to appeal as long as the Judge is most likely to place the company in contempt.
According to a Microsoft spokesperson who is familiar with the situation, “We will appeal promptly and continue to advocate that people’s emails deserve strong privacy protection in the US and around the world.”
What do you think? Do you think that emails which are stored in foreign data centers would and should come under jurisdiction of a certain government that is far away? It was mentioned that since Microsoft is a U.S. company, it must then hand over the emails to the U.S. government, but Microsoft claims otherwise, citing the fact that a handful of international treaties concerning the sharing of information prevents the company from breaching the trust of its users.