Microsoft sues for right to tell customers when US government requests emails

Traditional searches or wiretaps often require government to eventually notify the people they've searched; Microsoft wants the same to apply to emails

Microsoft sued the US government on Thursday for the right to tell customers when authorities search their email inboxes.

In a federal complaint that names the US attorney general, Loretta Lynch, the company argues the government has taken advantage of the consumer trend for storing their private data on tech companies' servers, rather than storing it on their own devices. This shouldn't let the government search the digital equivalent of a person's desk without telling them, Microsoft argues.