Such a requirement is completely legal. US law allows litigants to require network providers to retain the account content of the other party in case they need to be used in subsequent trials. Some suppliers will do so spontaneously, but most of them will ask for their own eyes before the action. Go to the court permit.
Before applying to the court for relevant orders, it was reported that Tesla had contacted three large technology companies (Apple, Google, Microsoft) and hoped they could retain relevant evidence, but TheRegister reported that Apple had rejected Tesla and Emphasizing that "there will be no evidence to respond to the request in the absence of proper legal procedures." Microsoft did not respond. As for Google, it received a copy of the summons, but did not appear in the case of a court document requesting "voluntary compliance."
Martin Tripp was originally a process technician at Gigafactory, Nevada. Tesla believes that Tripp has access to Tesla's Manufacturing Operating System (MOS) for confidential and business information, uploading relevant information to personal email and cloud accounts. Also writes special code to send to unknown third party outsiders.
Tesla also accused Tripp of lying to the media (Business Insider) about the secret content of the stolen, including negative information such as battery rupture, excessive waste and manufacturing delays. Tripp acknowledged the leak, but there is a completely different saying about this. ─ Tripp told the Guardian that he leaked the message, only because no one in Tesla had heard his concerns.
Tripp also denied that he was involved in hacking of the MOS system. He stressed to the Guardian that he did not even code, although he admitted that there was indeed information on MOS disclosed to Business Insider, but it was simply a "query database" in order to confirm to reporters. His opinion.
As for another Tesla IT staff member, Andrew Lindemulder, who testified to the court in writing on the 14th, “Tripp once admitted to him that in order to extinguish the incriminating evidence, relevant documents previously retained in e-mail and iCloud, OneDrive and SharePoint have been deleted. The data says that Tripp told ArsTechnica, another media, that Lindemulder was the one who frankly feared and forced him to delete all the files.
At present, the two sides still hold the same word and there is no more accurate evidence. However, the US District Court for the Nevada State has applied for a subpoena on Tesla on the 26th. Tesla can now formally request several large technology companies to save relevant information through subpoenas. Information, including Facebook, Dropbox, Open Whisper, Signal, AT&T, Whatsapp and 3 major technology companies, must retain Tripp's email account from October 1, 2017, and also retain Onedrive, Sharepoint and iCloud Save account information.
Tesla is currently asking Tripp for $1 million in damages. As of now, Tripp has not filed any legal documents to respond to the lawsuit.