Can the US government demand that it be able to reach into the world’s servers with the tech sector’s assistance? International relations issues aside, the answer to that legally thorny question depends on which US court is asked.
Consider that a federal magistrate judge in Philadelphia answered that question Friday in the affirmative, ordering Google to comply with US warrants and transfer e-mail stored overseas to the US so the FBI could examine it as part of a criminal probe. Yet just two weeks ago, a New York-based federal appeals court let stand its highly publicized July decision that allowed Microsoft to quash a US court warrant for e-mail stored on its servers in Dublin, Ireland.
In response to that NY appellate court ruling, the Justice Department said it was “considering our options” on whether to appeal the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to the Supreme Court. And in response to the Philadelphia magistrate’s decision, Google said, “The magistrate in this case departed from precedent, and we plan to appeal the decision. We will continue to push back on overbroad warrants.”
What all of this means is that current law on the US government’s legal right to reach into the world’s servers is vague at best. It also shows that the US government, despite the appeals court ruling, is still pursuing overseas data, but it’s doing so in judicial districts that don’t have to comport with the 2nd Circuit’s ruling.
In that latest Philadelphia ruling, the issue concerned e-mails that were all sent within the US. Google forwarded relevant data on its US-based servers to the FBI. However, Google moves data around the world to optimize performance, and the company refused to turn over other e-mails because of where the data was stored. Google argued that it legally complied, because warrants may only lawfully reach “data stored within the United States.”