Simon Says – Musings of a Technology CTO

A quick followup to my blogs of May 2015 here, September 2014 here and July 2014 here, where the NY State court is trying to compel Microsoft to hand over emails from one of their servers in Ireland. The case is still ongoing, and recently went through a session with the appeals court  – you can find the rough transcript online.

In it the two sides argue the legal difference between warrants and subpoenas, and whether our emails should be considered “the business records of a company”.

This far reaching case will have ramifications for governments and service providers which way it goes – Microsoft argue that if it goes against them, that means Russia will be able to obtain records from US Mail.ru servers without the US government having a say, and the US government argue that if they loose, companies can simply offshore their customers data to block US Government inspection.

Which way do you think it will go? Comment below.