Microsoft has won an appeal over a US search warrant that aimed to force the company to turn over data it stored overseas.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York reversed the decision in
a 63-page decision on Thursday.
The case centered on a uniquely-different warrant that was issued by US prosecutors in that it was for data stored in an email account stored by Microsoft overseas. Prosecutors said that because the data was hosted by a US-based company, Microsoft must comply.
But the judges concluded that Congress did not intend the law used in the case -- the Stored Communications Act -- to apply outside the US.
Judge Gerard Lynch said in added remarks it was a "rational policy outcome" and should be "celebrated as a milestone in protecting privacy".
