Elizabeth Weise

USATODAY

SAN FRANCISCO –Microsoft must hand over email stored on servers in Ireland to comply with a U.S. warrant in a narcotics case, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan, is the latest in an ongoing battle over who has jurisdiction over users' data in an era when it could be stored anywhere in the world.

Preska argued that because the servers are run by Microsoft, a U.S. company, where they are located doesn't matter.

The case is part of a broad push by the tech industry to get lawmakers to update laws that govern data stored in the cloud.

"The cloud" refers to information that isn't stored on a customer's computer, but on servers that could be anywhere in the world, accessible via the internet.

In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said the basic issue is whether customer emails belong to the customer or the customer and the company that manages the email service.

Microsoft says that the emails were stored in Dublin, Ireland in a data center used for some of its customers outside of the United States.

Microsoft and other tech companies say that email stored on computer servers overseas can't be obtained through warrants because warrants don't reach outside of the United States.

"It's all about turf and whether U.S. law enforcement can force U.S. companies to turn over information stored outside of the U.S." said Craig Newman, a data privacy lawyer and expert with the law firm of Richards Kibbe & Orbe in New York City.

"Here, the Justice Department says that companies with U.S. operations must comply with search warrants calling for information they maintain outside the U.S., even though they couldn't, for instance, make those same companies produce a file cabinet they have in another country. If endorsed by the courts, this would give U.S. law enforcement essentially global jurisdiction to access digital content wherever in the world it is stored."

Microsoft plans to appeal the ruling.

"The only issue that was certain this morning was that the District Court's decision would not represent the final step in this process. We will appeal promptly and continue to advocate that people's email deserves strong privacy protection in the U.S. and around the world," Smith said in a statement.