Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) have filed a legal notice in support of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which is protesting a government order to give out emails stored on foreign servers.
The amicus brief follows a decision by a judge in early February to rule in favor of FBI in the case. The FBI issued Google which is based in Mountain View with a warrant demanding information regarding three Gmail accounts stored overseas.
In an amicus brief, the four tech companies who are major competitors with Google in a number of ways, they are supporting the rights of tech companies to hold foreign data from domestic law enforcement agencies. The companies argue that if the court approves the warrant, it will prompt foreign law enforcement agencies to demand access to information held on American servers.
Microsoft in January won a case of the same kind against the investigative agency which had served it with a search warrant to access emails from a non-U.S. Citizen that were being held in the company‘s servers in Ireland.
In yet a similar case, the top tech companies have ganged in support of Apple in a case where in the company is protesting a judge order to unlock an iPhone belonging to a dead terrorist.
A total of fifteen companies including Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) under the friend-of-the-court status seek to overturn an order compelling Apple to set up a special software to be used by the FBI in unlocking an iPhone that belonged to Syed Rizwan Farook who died in a shootout with law enforcement after he killed 14 people at a San Bernardino-based holiday party in California.
While confirming their commitment to cooperating with law enforcement agencies to wipe out criminals they oppose the assertion by the government that they have the legal approval to demand a command a company to undermine their security features.
Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) and a group of other 17 companies requested to separately support Apple in the fight. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) both requested to join the case on support of Apple. They argue that the court ruling will kill innovation and finally decrease security.
