SAN FRANCISCO, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Microsoft filed a lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. government over indefinite gag orders that prevent it from speaking about law enforcement request for data.
In the case filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Microsoft asked the judge to declare the Electronic Communications Privacy Act unconstitutional in allowing courts to require tech companies to keep secret when the government seeks their customers' email content or other private information.
The lawsuit, which named the Department of Justice and Attorney General Loretta Lynch as plaintiff, argued that the law violates both the Fourth Amendment, which gives people and businesses the right to know if the government searches their property, and the First Amendment, which protect Microsoft's right to let its customers know the government searches.
Microsoft has previously complied with court orders to allow law enforcement to access its customers information, and it accepts the secrecy around government warrants when necessary.
What's really at issue is that the company received too many court orders requiring it keep government requests for data under wraps, a situation being called as "routine" by Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith.
Smith said in a blog post that over the past 18 month, courts have issued 2576 secrecy orders to the company, and 68 percent of them contained no fixed end date.
"This means we effectively are prohibited forever from telling our customers that the government has obtained their data," he said.
The company complained that the issue has had consequences for its rapidly increasing cloud computing business, which allows individuals and businesses to keep their documents on remote servers in data centers instead of local computers and on-premises servers.
"The government, however, has exploited the transition to cloud computing as a means of expanding its power to conduct secret investigations," the company said in its lawsuit.
"The twin developments -- the increase in government demands for online data and the simultaneous increase in secrecy -- have combined to undermine confidence in the privacy of the cloud and have impaired Microsoft's right to be transparent with its customers, a right guaranteed by the First Amendment."
Microsoft urged the Department of Justice to adopt a new policy that sets reasonable limitations on the use of those types of secrecy orders and suggested that Congress amend the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to implement reasonable rules, if the department does not act.
Thursday's lawsuit is the fourth public case Microsoft has filed against the U.S. government regarding its customers' right to privacy and transparency. The first one resulted in a settlement allowing the company to disclose the number of legal requests it receives. The second one resulted in the government withdrawing a National Security Letter, to which a attached non-disclosure order was challenged. And the third, which involves the government investigation of customer data stored in Ireland, is pending in an appeals court.
The current lawsuit is another case highlighting the growing tensions between tech companies and the U.S. government over privacy issue. Apple has recently challenged a court order which required it to work with the government on hacking into the phone of a terrorist killer. The government finally scrapped its request for Apple's assistance.
BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- GlaxoSmithKline's human papilloma virus vaccine has been approved for sale, China Food and Drug Administration told Xinhua on Monday.
In a separate statement, GSK said the vaccine, commercially named Cervarix, is the first HPV vaccine licensed for use in China.
The World Health Organization recommends the appropriate use of HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer.
" A man avoids a burning barricade set up by supporters of the opposition coalition the National Super Alliance and its presidential candidate Raila Odinga to block vehicles from delivering electoral materials to the polling stations in the Kibera slum Achat Claquette Puma Fenty Fur Slide Noir , one of the opposition strongholds in Nairobi, Kenya on Wednesday. Photo: IC
Kenyan opposition supporters clashed with police and threw up burning barricades on Thursday Acheter Claquette Puma Fenty Fur Slide Grise , seeking to derail an election rerun likely to return Uhuru Kenyatta as president of East Africa's chief economic and political powerhouse.
In the western city of Kisumu, stone-throwing youths heeding opposition leader Raila Odinga's call for a voter boycott were met by live rounds Soldes Claquette Puma Fur Slide Rouge , tear gas and water cannon. Gunfire killed one protester and wounded three others, a nurse said. Reuters found no polling stations open there.
Riot police fired tear gas in Kibera and Mathare En ligne Claquette Puma Fenty Fur Slide Jaune , two volatile Nairobi slums. Protesters set fires in Kibera early in the morning and in Mathara a church was firebombed and a voter attacked.
Around 50 people have been killed, mostly by security forces Pas Cher Claquette Puma Fenty Fur Slide Bordeaux , since the original August 8 vote. The Supreme Court annulled Kenyatta's win in that poll on procedural grounds and ordered fresh elections within 60 days, but Odinga called for a boycott amid concerns the poll would not be free and fair.
The repeat election is being closely watched across East Africa Puma Fenty Bow Slide Olive Verte , which relies on Kenya as a trade and logistics hub, and in the West Puma Fenty Bow Slide Bordeaux , which considers Nairobi a bulwark against Islamist militancy in Somalia and civil conflict in South Sudan and Burundi.
While tensions simmered in opposition strongholds, other areas were calm. In the capital Puma Fenty Bow Slide Noir , polling stations saw a sprinkling of voters instead of the hours-long queues that waited in August.