Microsoft demanded the right to tell users whether authorities were reading their mail

Microsoft has filed a lawsuit demanding that it be unconstitutional the government's right to prevent IT companies from telling users that their email and other personal information is being verified as part of an investigation.

According to Microsoft, the study of information stored on cloud services is essentially no different from a search of a person's home or checking his hard drive. However, the government has the ability to block companies from informing users about email verification on the pretext that doing so could harm an investigation.

According to Microsoft, this rule violates the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which obliges the government to notify citizens of searches or confiscations of property, as well as the First Amendment, which gives the company the right to inform customers.

The company indicated that out of 5.6 thousand requests for access to user data received from the authorities since September 2014, more than 2.5 thousand were accompanied by a requirement to keep the verification secret.

• In 2016, a lawsuit by the US Department of Justice against Apple with a demand to help the FBI hack the iPhone of the terrorist Siad Farouk, who fired in San Bernardino, caused a great resonance. Apple refused to cooperate with the authorities in this case. The DOJ eventually dropped the lawsuit because a third party provided assistance in cracking the FBI’s smartphone security, but the proposed method proved useless on the latest smartphones.