By Prince Osuagwu with agency report
A three-judge panel in a US court of appeals in New York City, Thursday, threw out contempt suit filed against Microsoft for refusing to give police user data stored overseas.

The judges also ordered that even the warrant in the case, be thrown out too. The December 2013 warrant directed Microsoft to turn over the contents of an email account used by a suspected drug trafficker.

The citizenship and location of the suspected drug trafficker were not revealed.
The warrant had been issued under provisions of Stored Communications Act (SCA) legislation enacted as part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986.

Judge Susan Carney of the appeals court said that the SCA does not give US courts authority to force internet companies in the United States to seize customer email contents stored on foreign servers.

“We conclude that Congress did not intend the SCA’s warrant provisions to apply extraterritorially,” the judges said.
“The focus of those provisions is protection of a user’s privacy interests.”

Microsoft welcomed the decision, saying it helped ensure people’s privacy rights are protected by laws in their own countries.
There were fears that a ruling against Microsoft would pave the way for countries to force internet firms to disclose user data no matter where in the world it was kept.

An elated Microsoft chief legal officer, Brad Smith was quoted to have said that.”This decision provides a major victory for the protection of people’s privacy rights under their own laws rather than the reach of foreign governments,”

“It makes clear that the US Congress did not give the US Government the authority to use search warrants unilaterally to reach beyond US borders.”

file: Appeal, 14/7/16