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The NAM filed an amicus brief in the Second Circuit in support of Microsoft's appeal of a district court decision allowing the government to invoke the Stored Communications Act (SCA) to obtain Microsoft's customer’s confidential data stored "in the cloud." Under the SCA, the government is not required to give a customer prior notice that the government is seeking to force a third-party service provider, like Microsoft, to disclose the customer’s data in connection with a law enforcement investigation. And the SCA authorizes—and the government frequently obtains—ex parte gag orders forbidding the third-party provider from notifying its customers of the government’s demand. The NAM’s brief argued that the government's actions violate the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution and that the benefits of cloud computing will be jeopardized if private information receives diminished legal protections. On May 14, 2021, the Second Circuit vacated the district court's order after the challenged nondisclosure order expired, rendering the case moot.