Amazon, Google And Apple Side With Microsoft In Customer Privacy Fight With Government

Microsoft has gotten some big-name allies in its ongoing argument with the U.S. government about its customers’ privacy rights and to what extent it is allowed/required to inform said customers of data requests from government officials.

Amazon, Apple, Google and Mozilla have all filed an amicus brief to support Microsoft in its fight over the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).

The argument between Microsoft and the feds hinges on wording in the ECPA that lets government officials determine when (or if) companies should notify customers of government information requests.

Microsoft — and its now conjoined allies in this issue — argue that the government’s role in deciding when and if consumers are informed is both a hit on privacy rights and a potential violation of the Fourth Amendment and its protections against illegal searches and seizures.

By not notifying customers of these requests, Microsoft is arguing that the government is forcibly making it complicit in violating its users’ constitutional rights.

And the big tech names aren’t the only major players sympathetic to Microsoft’s thinking on this matter. British Petroleum, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fox News and former Department of Justice and FBI officials have all come out in support of Microsoft.

The Department of Justice argues that there’s “compelling” interest in keeping criminal investigations private and insists Microsoft has no grounds for this lawsuit.