Tech Giants Seek to Halt Overseas Snooping by US

Source: Associated Press

@AP: Microsoft, Apple and others file lawsuit saying US has no right to seize computer data stored outside country http://t.co/B2i2DObMFf/s/QunE

TECH GIANTS SEEK TO HALT OVERSEAS SNOOPING BY US

By LARRY NEUMEISTER
— Jun. 16, 2014 3:49 PM EDT

FILE - This Jan. 22, 2009 file photo shows the Microsoft sign outside the headquarters campus in Redmond, Wash. Microsoft Corp. and four other large American technology companies are using a Manhattan court case to draw a line in the cloud, saying the U.S. government has no right to seize computer data stored outside the country. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, file)

NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft Corp. and four other large American technology companies are using a Manhattan court case to draw a line in the cloud, saying the U.S. government has no right to seize computer data stored outside the country.

U.S. companies that host services over the Internet and sell remote data storage — a concept broadly known as "cloud computing" — say they stand to lose billions of dollars in business if emails and other files they house overseas are seen vulnerable to U.S. snooping.

Lawyers for the companies say the perception was stoked by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden's revelations last year that the U.S. and other countries' intelligence agencies routinely and indiscriminately gather and store huge amounts of data from phone calls and Internet communications.

And it was harmed again in April, they say, when a Manhattan magistrate judge concluded it was legal for the government to order Microsoft to comply with a sealed search warrant for a consumer email account it stores in Dublin, Ireland.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/tech-giants-seek-halt-overseas-snooping-us