MICROSOFT’S ONGOING BATTLE to stop the US authorities from marching into overseas data centres with cyber wheelbarrows and coming out laden has taken another thresh around in the bottom of the basket.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has long wanted to get into the Aladdin’s cave of overseas data but has always been turned away by Microsoft. Always in very strongly worded, fist in the air, pro-privacy declarations.
Like a dog that thinks you might have half of a ham sandwich in your pocket – it happens – the DoJ just won’t stop sniffing and fussing, despite all the gentle nudges away.
Microsoft has been fighting this attention since 2013. It does not want the DoJ to access information about a suspected drug gang. Well not that explicitly, it does not want to hand over personal data willy-nilly.
