White Collar Roundup - May 2018

Government Requests to Microsoft Plummet—but for How Long?

As we have previously reported, beginning two years ago, Microsoft successfully challenged prosecutors' authority to obtain orders from U.S. courts requiring internet service providers (ISPs) to disclose data stored abroad. Moreover, this past March, when the Supreme Court appeared on the verge of ruling for Microsoft, Congress amended the Stored Communications Act (SCA) to authorize extraterritorial orders to disclose data. Such orders are subject to a new express right of ISPs like Microsoft to move to quash if the order is at odds with the privacy laws of the nation where the data reposes. Now, Microsoft has released data that suggests its resistance over the past two years may have deterred the U.S. and other governments from seeking disclosure from Microsoft, and that reveals commensurate increases in requests of its competitors. In 2017, Microsoft received 48,306 such requests from governments around