Radio NZ reports that John Edwards, New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner, has taken a position opposing the United States in its case involving information held in an Irish centre owned by Microsoft.
America’s government wants to access private information about a US citizen accused of drug trafficking, which is held in an Irish centre owned by Microsoft.
Rather than asking Ireland to hand over the information, the government wants to seize it under US search warrant laws.
Mr. Edwards’s submission took the position that if the U.S. were to prevail, that would enable them to seize information held in New Zealand under a U.S. search warrant, which is… well… not acceptable.
How many countries have to push back against the long arm of a U.S. search warrant, and will the U.S. Supreme Court care what they say/think?
Good for him.
Is this the only country to do this to date?
If you scroll down this page: http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/united-states-v-microsoft-corp/ you can see who submitted amici briefs. If it says “in favor of neither party,” that’s generally just the filer trying to remind the U.S. Supreme Court that they should consider GDPR and EU rules of data protection, too. I think Commissioner Edwards’ brief is more pointed than some of the others. 🙂