Nationality in the cloud: US clashes with Microsoft over seizing data from abroad

Oral arguments begin next week as a court examines US officials' ability to seize information abroad amid controversy over narcotics case

Does cloud computing have a nationality? That's the question posed by Microsoft's lawyers and the counsel in a closely watched case whose oral arguments begin in Manhattan on next Wednesday. The case scrutinizes the ability of the US government to seize information outside its own borders.

Microsoft and the US government are facing off in the second circuit court of appeals over the tech giant's continuing refusal to hand over emails related to a narcotics case from a Hotmail account hosted in Ireland in 2013.