That rule went into place before the web existed, and long before many of us stored private data and communications in the cloud. So-called "sneak-and-peek" searches by the government on corporate servers have become more common lately -- Microsoft says that over 18 months there were 2,576 demands, and 68 percent had gag orders attached preventing it from notifying customers that appeared to be indefinite. While the Department of Justice has not commented on the blog report, its memo, dated October 19th and signed by deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, directs prosecutors to delay notice for year or less, barring "exceptional circumstances."

Of course, this situation shouldn't be confused with Microsoft's other lawsuit, which is fighting a request by the US government to access email data on a server in Ireland.