Microsoft fends off FBI request to hand over Office 365 data

Microsoft has successfully challenged an FBI order to hand over the data of one of its Office 365 subscribers.

Court documents that remained sealed until this week show that last year the FBI sent Microsoft a confidential letter, known as a National Security Letter.

The document demanded the company deliver "several categories of information" relating to an unnamed enterprise customer, and also contained a non-disclosure provision.

In a blog post published after the documents were unsealed, Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith said: "Last December I announced that Microsoft was committed 'to notifying business and government customers if we receive legal orders related to their data. Where a gag order attempts to prohibit us from doing this, we will challenge it in court'."

Accordingly, Microsoft challenged this particular order, having concluded the non-disclosure provision was "unlawful and violated [Microsoft's] constitutional right to free expression".

After the company filed its challenge in the Seattle federal court, the FBI withdrew its letter, Smith said.

Microsoft and other tech companies began publishing details of government requests they receive for customer data earlier this year, in response to revelations stemming from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Documents leaked by Snowden stirred up fear that large internet companies were complicit in vast US spying programmes, such as the notorious Prism initiative.

Smith had previously denied that Microsoft's co-operation with law enforcement agencies was a comprehensive as the Snowden papers claimed was the case in the telecoms industry.

In response to this most recent case, he said government requests for business customers' data are "extremely rare".

"In those rare cases where we have received requests, we've succeeded in redirecting the government to obtain the information from the customer, or we have obtained permission from the customer to provide the data," said Smith.

"We're pleased with the outcome of this case, which validates our approach," he added.

The full text of the FBI's request is available to download as a PDF from Smith's blog.

This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk