Microsoft Corporation has found itself at the center of an intense legal battle regarding the ability of the United States government to subpoena data stored abroad. In addition to drawing the attention of constitutional law scholars, technology companies, and lawmakers, the case has also implicated some emerging areas of e-discovery practice.
Microsoft stores messages sent and received by its email users at “datacenters.” Although Microsoft does not disclose the exact number of datacenters it operates, the company confirms that there are between 10 and 100 worldwide.1 The physical location of a user’s data depends primarily on the proximity of that user to the various datacenters.
