By Preston Gralla  August 01, 2014 If you're worried about your privacy, Microsoft is one of your best friends. Microsoft's decision to appeal a court ruling that it has to turn over to the federal government email stored in Ireland shows once again that the company is fighting for your electronic privacy rights. The ruling has to do with a search warrant in which the federal government demanded that Microsoft turn over copies of emails the company stored in a server in Ireland. The warrant is part of a drug investigation.
 
Microsoft fought in court against turning over the information, and a magistrate judge ruled against the company. Microsoft appealed, and then yesterday District Court Judge Loretta Preska ruled that Microsoft had to turn over the emails.
 
The heart of the issue has to do with whether email stored in the cloud has the same constitutional privacy rights as does mail sent the traditional way, via paper. Microsoft argues it does. The government argues it does not. Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith, writing in the Wall Street Journal before the ruling, explained Microsoft's thinking this way:
 
"Microsoft believes you own emails stored in the cloud, and that they have the same privacy protection as paper letters sent by mail. This means, in our view, that the U.S. government can obtain emails only subject to the full legal protections of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment. It means, in this case, that the U.S. government must have a warrant. But under well-established case law, a search warrant cannot reach beyond U.S. shores."
 
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