Irish sovereignty ‘faces being trampled’ by US

Privacy activists last night warned that Irish sovereignty faces being trampled on if the US government is able to force technology firms to simply hand over information held on servers in Ireland.

The Government must make its voice heard over a landmark case before a federal court in New York, according to a lawyer for a leading US privacy advocacy group.

Microsoft has already been ordered by a judge to hand over emails held in servers in Dublin, allowing prosecutors in the drug trafficking case to entirely bypass the Irish-US mutual legal assistance treaty.