San Francisco, Apr 14 (EFE).– Microsoft Corp. filed a lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. Justice Department, challenging so-called secrecy orders that bar the company from notifying its customers when the government has reviewed their e-mails and other data.

The tech giant says in the suit that it has received 5,624 requests from the government for customer information or data over the past 18 months; in nearly half of the cases – 2,576 – the company was prevented from telling people that federal agents were inspecting their online information.

The suit, filed in federal district court in Seattle, where Microsoft’s headquarters is based, comes shortly after the U.S. government and Apple Inc. were locked in a dispute over access to an iPhone in a terrorism case.

“This morning we filed a new lawsuit in federal court against the United States government to stand up for what we believe are our customers’ constitutional and fundamental rights – rights that help protect privacy and promote free expression,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer, said on the company’s official blog.

The company argues in the suit that “with rare exceptions” consumers and businesses have a right to know when the government is accessing their e-mails or records.

“Yet it’s becoming routine for the U.S. government to issue orders that require e-mail providers to keep these types of legal demands secret,” Smith said.

Microsoft says the secrecy orders violate the Fourth Amendment, “which gives people and businesses the right to know if the government searches or seizes their property,” and the First Amendment, “which guarantees our right to talk to customers about how government action is affecting their data.”

If the Justice Department does not act, “then we hope that Congress will amend the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (of 1986) to implement reasonable rules,” the company said.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government sued Apple Inc. to force it to unlock an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the Dec. 2, 2015, San Bernardino terrorist attack.

Apple had refused to create a backdoor to the iPhone, saying the software the government wanted it to create would be the “equivalent of a master key” and “undermine decades of security advancements” that protect customers from cybercriminals.

The Justice Department later said it had gained access to the iPhone and no longer needed Apple’s help. EFE