The lawsuit accuses the US government for contravening the Fourth Amendment upholding the right for people and businesses to get informed about search or property seizure.  Such acts by the government agencies also violate Microsoft's First Amendment related to right for free speech. The Department of Justice is reviewing the filing, informs Reuters quoting Emily Pierce, spokeswoman for the department.

Consumers and businesses are righteous to get informed about the government intervention to their emails or records, believes Microsoft. However, the US government agencies have been practicing regularly through asking for maintaining secrecy about the legal demand. Microsoft believes, this practice has gone too far and hence seeks court intervention to address the situation, reports BBC quoting Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer for the tech giant.

However, Microsoft acknowledges the necessity to keep the peeping information secret in a view to keep people safe or prevent evidence from being destroyed. Mr. Smith also observes that the issuance of secrecy orders has become a regular routine for the investigators.

Microsoft's lawsuit eventually challenges some provisions of Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The law is 30-year-old and several tech firms consider it outdated for its failure to prevent abuse. Microsoft expects insertion of reasonable provisions to the act allowing the tech giant to inform more customers about action related to their data.