Microsoft sues US government over data requests

San Francisco, April 14----Soon after Apple's clashes with FBI ended, another technology giant Microsoft filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the U.S. government for preventing the company from telling customers about the government's probing into their emails.

Microsoft sued the U.S. Justice Department in federal court in Seattle, where the company headquartered, arguing that the government is violating the U.S. Constitution by preventing Microsoft from notifying thousands of customers about government requests for their emails and other documents.

Specifically, the U.S. government violates the Fourth Amendment right of its customers to know if the government searches or seizes their property, and it breaches the company’s First Amendment right to free speech.

Microsoft says over the past 18 months it has received 5,624 legal orders under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a law enacted 30 years ago to extend government restrictions on wire taps from telephone calls to include transmissions of electronic data by computer. According to Microsoft, of all the legal orders, 2,576 prevented the company from disclosing that the government is seeking customer data through warrants, subpoenas and other requests.

Most of the ECPA requests apply to individuals, not companies, and provide no fixed end date to the secrecy provision, Microsoft said.

Microsoft is not the only one fighting with the U.S. government. The authority and the technology companies have been at feud over surveillance and privacy since Edward Snowden, a former contractor for CIA exposed the government's surveillance program "Prism" in 2013 .

Since the revelations, many companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Yahoo have been beefing up their security. Some companies phase in technology that drastically limits the information access to U.S. government agencies.

While the government calls on the companies to offer more help by requiring users' data and reducing its encryption on devices.

For U.S. citizens, there are different voices. Although many accuse the government's surveillance activities, others support it, especially when it closely relates to national security. And it is also the frequent reason cited by the U.S. authority. When Apple sued the FBI over cracking the iPhone of a San Bernardino shooting suspect, some Americans show their supports for the FBI.

And some others even questioned the companies' motivations, saying that those companies are motivated by business interest. They are trying to rebuild the trust impaired by the revelation of their cooperation with the government.

Increasingly, U.S. companies are under pressure to prove they are helping protect consumer privacy. Twitter is now fighting a separate battle in federal court in Northern California over public disclosure of government requests for information on users.