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Saying its customers "have a right to know when the government obtains a warrant to read their emails" — and that Microsoft has a right to tell them about gag orders — the tech giant has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Justice Department.


Microsoft is asking a judge to declare part of a federal law, specifically 

, unconstitutional under both the First and Fourth Amendments.


As NPR's Aarti Shahani reports for our Newscast unit:

, Microsoft says the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which dates to 1986, lets courts order companies not to inform customers whose email or other private information is being sought by the government. The company says the law lacks both a time limit for the secrecy orders and a useful threshold, as it requires that authorities have "a 'reason to believe' that disclosure might hinder an investigation."
Aarti adds, "The Justice Department did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment."  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Microsoft is asking a judge to declare part of a 1986 federal law unconstitutional under both the First and Fourth Amendments.

Microsoft sues Justice Dept., seeking to inform customers about seized data

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