App Industry Under Threat from Today’s Court Decision

ACT | The App Association issued the following statement today in response to the District Court ruling that requires Microsoft to provide federal investigators access to email communications stored overseas.

“It is clear from today’s actions that the court is out of step with global privacy concerns,” said ACT President Jonathan Zuck. “This has the potential to undermine the mobile app industry for which the cloud is critical.”

“Consumers and business customers around the world are questioning whether data stored by a U.S. company will ever be beyond the reach of the American government. Sadly, today’s District Court decision reinforces those fears and serves as an engraved invitation for our trading partners to discriminate against U.S. companies.  It is also a green light for unscrupulous foreign entities seeking to seize the private communications of American companies and citizens living abroad.”

To obtain documents and information for the purpose of enforcing laws, governments use a mutual legal assistance treaties (MLAT) to facilitate that exchange. However, in this case, the U.S. government is trying to circumvent that process by saying a warrant issued in the U.S. is sufficient to make Microsoft copy that information in Ireland and turn it over to authorities in the U.S.

“American companies now face an international backlash as a result of the court’s decision,” continued Zuck. “The European Union and countries around the world are considering measures to prevent U.S. businesses from providing cloud services within their borders.  Nearly every app maker in the world sells their products through cloud services provided by Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Without U.S. cloud providers, there would be no app stores leaving our $68 billion industry imperiled. If access to foreign markets is restricted, revenues will fall and hundreds of thousands of jobs will be affected.

“The U.S. is the world leader in providing amazing applications and services in a globally available cloud.  The Court ruling today would destroy that leadership, and crush opportunities for not just big players, but for thousands of small companies throughout America.”

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