Microsoft Sues U.S. Government Over Cloud Searches

(RTTNews) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department stating that it is unconstitutional from the part of government to force the company to not to tell customers when their cloud data has been examined by authorities.

According to Microsoft, an individuals would know if their hard drive or physical storage is searched by authorities, however, investigators want to keep it secret when they search data stored on the cloud.

"Microsoft brings this case because its customers have a right to know when the government obtains a warrant to read their emails, and because Microsoft has a right to tell them," the complaint, filed today in a Washington District Court.

Microsoft says that it received 5,624 demands for customer information in the past 18 months of which nearly 2,576 came with secrecy orders that prevented the company from telling customers about the examination.