Wednesday did not turn out to be such a good day for the global software distributers, Microsoft, when the US government decided to sue the company. If the verdict went sideways, then unequivocally, there would be a catastrophic global economic impact, as assessed by experts, as Hotmail and Yahoo were one of the earliest e-mail clients.
All this was propelled by none other than a Hotmail account which was said to be associated with narcotics. In an attempt to recover the contents of the account in an ongoing investigation, Microsoft refused, claiming that it would be a clear violation of the client service agreement. However, the Department of Justice argued that this is a clear “interference with an ongoing investigation”.
Moreover, experts and former employees of Microsoft feel that this would be a major loss for Microsoft, as the impact would lead to a major defection by European residents from Hotmail. He also argued that this would not only pose a threat to Microsoft, but other e-mail providers, as users would feel that their information is insecure and open to invasion of privacy.
So, what has been the response from similar companies? Amazon, Apple, and eBay among others clearly backed up Microsoft’s decision, as they felt that this would be a first time loophole to the government domination of civilian privacy. Nevertheless, it seems that the appeals and continuous support from other firms has not been as promising, since Microsoft has lost the case twice so far.
In their defense, Microsoft’s top lawyer, Brad Smith feels that should the government win the case, then it would make an example for other nations to following suit. He continues to argue that the government should not make the mistake or follow a one-time model, as in this case, without expecting other countries to follow their steps.
The trial is expected to come after the US Attorney General vowed to ensure that if this goes through, then the Department of Justice would no doubt be made the standard-bearer for any response to cybercrime. Along these lines, the Department of Justice has also been adamant and urges all the tech companies to come up with a backdoor option to allow the government to carry out investigations if need be.
Conclusively, this is a clear violation of digital laws and many feel that it would weaken the encryption mechanism and hence interfere with the safety of citizens.