Microsoft refused to comply with the court order and issue user letters

After receiving a court order from the US federal court to provide the contents of the mail correspondence of the user whose data is stored on foreign hosting, Microsoft refused to obey the order .

This is the first time in history when a US company refuses to comply with a court order to protect its foreign users.

In principle, Microsoft may well expect to win in this process, because the data centers in the European Union are not under the jurisdiction of the United States. However, such courage in challenging the decisions of the native government deserves respect. It used to be considered that American companies blindly obey orders of the government of their country. It turns out that someone has the courage to challenge.
')
On July 31, 2014, a Manhattan court ruled that Microsoft is obliged to transfer e-mail messages stored in the Irish data center to US law enforcement investigators for investigation. However, shortly thereafter, many international and technology companies in the United States protested, because the US authorities are not entitled to search and seize data in other countries. It is beyond the law.

After receiving such feedback, the judge temporarily suspended Microsoft's requirement to remove the user's email. But then the prosecutor's office still managed to convince the judge that her order was not subject to appeal, so on August 29, 2014, she still lifted the suspension, so Microsoft was forced to comply with the court's request immediately. But she refused to do it.

As mentioned above, this is the first time in history when a US company refuses to comply with a court order in order to protect its foreign users. According to Microsoft and many independent lawyers, a US court has no jurisdiction over information in other countries. A court ruling violates the sovereignty of Ireland, so the authorities need to conclude an interstate agreement with Ireland to get the data they want.

It is very interesting to see how this story ends. Still, Microsoft is an American company. It manages the Irish data center from US territory and can get all the necessary data from here if it has such a desire.