Document Type
Comment
Abstract
The Stored Communications Act (SCA), which allows the government to compel the production of electronic customer information from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), was found to be limited in scope by the Second Circuit in Microsoft Corp. v. United States. The Second Circuit ruled that the SCA did not permit the government to force ISPs to hand over data that is located outside the United States.
In 2013, a warrant served under the SCA, was authorized requiring Microsoft to produce information and emails related to a federal criminal investigation. Many of the emails demanded by the warrant were located on a data server in Ireland. Since these emails were outside the United States, Microsoft argued that the warrant under the SCA had no jurisdiction in Ireland and moved for the warrant to be quashed. The magistrate judge denied the motion. The denial was also affirmed by the Southern District of New York, reasoning that the SCA compelled those served with warrants under the SCA to produce information regardless of the information’s location. Microsoft appealed the district court’s decision, held that the district court’s denial of microsoft’s motion to quash the warrant was improper and the case should be reversed and remanded to the district court.
Recommended Citation
Andrew Bayudan,
Extraterritorial Application of Data Privacy Law: How the Stored Communication Act Lags Behind Modern Technology,
22 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y
(2017).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/jtlp/vol22/iss2/5