On February 27, 2018 the Supreme Court heard arguments surrounding the privacy of data stored abroad and the reach of U.S. search warrants to retrieve such data.  While the Supreme Court decides the merits of United States v. Microsoft, Congress will debate on overhauling the Stored Communications Act (“SCA”) to reflect technological advances that were not contemplated back in 1986 – the year of SCA’s enactment. For a fuller examination of the arguments see the post on the Anticorruption blog.  The SCA governs the proper disclosure of electronic communications to third parties and provides civil and criminal penalties for improper disclosure.  This decision involves the data privacy expectations of U.S. and non-U.S. citizens alike and could impact a number of companies that store or facilitate the transmission of electronic communications.

Ani Kantarci contributed to this post.