Microsoft is suing the Department of Justice over its requests to access customer data stored in the cloud, expanding the fight between US technology companies and Washington over privacy concerns.

微软(Microsoft)正就美国司法部(DoJ)获取存储在云端的客户数据的要求向该部提起诉讼，此举扩大了美国科技公司与美国政府在隐私问题上的对抗。

Microsoft’s lawsuit takes aim at the DoJ’s practice of issuing “secrecy orders” that ban Microsoft from telling customers when their information is being accessed by the government. It names Loretta Lynch, the US Attorney General, as a defendant.

微软的诉讼将目标对准司法部发布“保密命令”的做法，这种做法禁止微软告知客户：政府正获取他们的信息。微软将美国司法部长洛蕾塔•林奇(Loretta Lynch)列为被告之一。

Microsoft says this practice, which is legal under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, violates its customers’ Fourth Amendment right to know when they are being searched and violates Microsoft’s First Amendment right to speak about these investigations.

微软表示，根据《电子通信隐私法》(Electronic Communications Privacy Act)属于合法的这种做法，侵犯了其客户根据美国宪法《第四修正案》(Fourth Amendment)对于自己被搜查的知情权，同时侵犯了微软根据美国宪法《第一修正案》(First Amendment)告知这些调查的权利。

“People do not give up their rights when they move their private information from physical storage to the cloud,” the lawsuit states. The DoJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

诉状称：“当人们将自己的私人信息从物理存储器转移到云端时，他们没有放弃自己的权利。”美国司法部没有立即对置评请求做出回应。

The lawsuit comes at a time of growing public debate over how the US government should be able to access electronic records. Apple fought the FBI’s demand for special software to access the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists, until the FBI found another way to unlock the device.

有关美国政府应如何获取电子数据的公开辩论正在升温。苹果(Apple)曾对抗美国联邦调查局(FBI)提出的要求该公司提供特殊软件解锁圣贝纳迪诺(San Bernardino)恐袭案的案犯之一的iPhone的做法，最后FBI通过别的途径解锁了那部手机。

Microsoft said the practice of issuing search warrants with secrecy orders had become more common as more customers move to cloud computing. “The government . . . has exploited the transition to cloud computing as a means of expanding its power to conduct secret investigations,” the filing said.

微软表示，随着更多用户采用云计算，发出保密命令的做法变得更为普遍。诉状称：“政府……利用客户将信息转移到云计算，扩大了其展开秘密调查的权力。”

Over the past 18 months, courts have issued more than 5,000 demands for customer information to Microsoft, around half of which contain secrecy orders. Of those, two-thirds have no fixed end-date, meaning that a user might never find out their information had been searched.

过去18个月，法庭向微软发出了逾5000项调查客户信息的要求，其中约一半含有保密命令。其中三分之二没有固定截止期限，这意味着，用户可能永远无法发现自己的信息遭到了搜查。