OTI Joins Amicus Brief in Microsoft Corp. v. Department of Justice

Last week, New America’s Open Technology Institute joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now, and legal scholar Jennifer Granick to file an amicus brief in the case of Microsoft Corp v. Department of Justice. The case questions whether a company that holds data on behalf of a user has the right to inform those users when their data have been accessed by the government. For many years, the answer has been “no,” and law enforcement warrants served on a company like that regularly come with gag orders stapled alongside. OTI agrees with Microsoft that the Fourth Amendment clearly demands that cloud customers be informed when their information is handed over to police. OTI is proud to join with these organizations to demonstrate for the court the importance of notice in the 21st century.

The following quote can be attributed to Ross Schulman, Senior Counsel at New America’s Open Technology Institute:

“A fundamental piece of Fourth Amendment law since the inception of the Constitution has been that if the police searched your home or belongings, you knew about it. In most cases, it would have been impossible not to, as a search almost always began with a knock on a door. Today our most intimate information doesn’t reside behind doors, it is kept on servers in data centers far from our homes. Today, the government can get away with gaining access to evidence without notice. The law prohibiting notice to the owner of a piece of data is unconstitutional and bad for public policy.”