| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Court: Foreigners’ e-mails protected by privacy act
Credit: Levi Pulkkinen, seattlepi.com 3 October 2011 ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Hearing a case filed against Microsoft, a federal appeals court has ruled that federal privacy law generally prevents e-mail providers from releasing non-U.S. residents’ e-mails.
Suzlon Energy Ltd. sought a court order requiring Microsoft to release e-mail stored in the Hotmail account of Rajagopalan Sridhar, an Indian citizen imprisoned for defrauding Suzlon.
In U.S. District Court at Seattle, Suzlon, a global wind power firm headquartered in India, unsuccessfully sought an order requiring Microsoft to produce Sridhar’s e-mail for use in a civil suit proceeding in Australia. Suzlon appealed U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman’s decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which found in Microsoft’s favor Monday.
The unanimous three-judge panel found the Electronic Communications Privacy Act – which makes it illegal for an e-mail provider to divulge clients’ e-mails under most circumstances – protects foreign citizens as well as U.S. residents.
Noting that the privacy act states that e-mail providers “shall not knowingly divulge to any person or entity the contents of a communication while in electronic storage by that service,” the appellate court found that the restriction plainly covers non-U.S. citizens.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Funding |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=13826 ]
