President Obama's secret war on Microsoft

Microsoft\'s top lawyer called on Congress and the White House to stop "the unfettered collection of bulk data" in a bid to end the federal government\'s secret data collection.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "I want law enforcement to do its job in an effective way pursuant to the rule of law," said Brad Smith at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C.. "If we can't get to that world, then law enforcement is going to have a bleak future anyway."

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In his comments, he said that it's important to confront those who support unlimited surveillance. He was speaking for the tech giant which is fighting the U.S. demand that it hand over data from a customer in Ireland.

"By the end of this decade there will be 50 billion devices connected to the internet of Things around the world," he said. "This issue is going to become more important, not less."

"We are in a business that relies on people's trust. We're offering a world where you should feel comfortable about storing [your information] in the cloud. You need to have confidence that this information is still yours."

The case stemmed from December of 2013, when a New York judge issued a warrant that demanded Microsoft hand over emails stored in its Dublin, Ireland, data-center. The emails were being sought in regards to a drug trafficking investigation.

In a document filed by Microsoft in early June, the company outlined its objections to the warrant. Noting that no U.S. authority can issue warrants for information located outside the U.S.

"The government cannot seek and a court cannot issue a warrant allowing federal agents to break down the doors of Microsoft's Dublin facility," lawyers from the firm argued.

"The government takes the extraordinary position that by merely serving such a warrant on any US-based email provider, it has the right to obtain the private emails of any subscriber, no matter where in the world the data may be located, and without the knowledge or consent of the subscriber or the relevant foreign government where the data is stored."

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