Google Challenges Search Warrant Ruling

Google is planning to appeal a ruling made Friday that it must comply with search warrants involving customer data stored on servers outside of the United States. The case is similar to an earlier case involving Microsoft. In July 2016, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said Microsoft could not be forced to turn over emails stored on a server outside of the US. Now, however, Magistrate Judge Thomas Rueter in Philadelphia has taken the opposite view with Google.

Both cases involve search warrants issued under the 1986 Stored Communications Act (SCA). Microsoft was also initially ordered to comply. It appealed, and eventually Judge Susan Carney of the appeals court said that the SCA does not give US courts authority to force internet companies in the United States to seize customer email contents stored on foreign servers. At the time, Microsoft chief legal officer Brad Smith said, "It makes clear that the US Congress did not give the US Government the authority to use search warrants unilaterally to reach beyond US borders."