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The Patriot Act and the EU Cloud
ISoldat53 writes "Gordon Frazer, managing director of Microsoft UK said that the Patriot Act allows government access to data in its cloud services even in Europe. Though he said that 'customers would be informed wherever possible,' he could not provide a guarantee that they would be informed if a gagging order, injunction or U.S. National Security Letter permits it."
So basically the U.S. Patriot Act is making "cloud" storage a useless technology.
The Internet will hopefully route around the "cloud".
Just plain stupid for customers. No control over your data.
Dog is my co-pilot.
If private US corporations can be used by the USA to extend its intelligence gathering reach like this, does that mean their employees can be treated as government agents by non-US law enforcement agencies? Could a privacy breach turn into an espionage case because of this? It'd certainly make me think twice about accepting a job for a US based company.
"Any data which is housed, stored or processed by a company, which is a U.S. based company or is wholly owned by a U.S. parent company, is vulnerable to interception and inspection by U.S. authorities. "
What doesn't fall under that? To be free of any potential US influence, EU users and companies should make sure the places they do business with have no ties to American companies? Sounds like ISPs, CDNs, web hosts, etc can be asked or forced to comply with government demands. It won't surprise me if there's a chilling of overseas demand for US Internet and Internet-connected services.
Who in their right mind would store their sensitive data in the cloud and not encrypt it locally first? That seems crazy. Patriot act or no, it's nuts.
lets bail on this police state run by fascist idiots. leave before they won't let you. the businesses had the right idea going overseas. Microsoft should relocate to.
There are basically two meanings of "The Cloud":
1) "You don't need to know where your data is"
2) Rapid automatic server provisioning
The thing that's wrong about 1) above is that "The Cloud" is sold as "don't worry about the man behind the curtain." Being ignorant about where your data is actually stored doesn't mean that it's safe -- quite the opposite -- it means that there is elevated risks involved. Because laws change with location, not knowing where your data is means not knowing what laws are applicable.
What stupidity. If China passed a law that said that they had to be given access to all of the data in all of the computers in the United States, I doubt very much if people would be jumping through hoops to accommodate them. Similarly, the U.S. can claim that it has access to data stored in computers in Europe, but no one should take them seriously.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Er, presumably if there were such a National Security Letter, housing it yourself wouldnt give you much choice in the matter either
Actually it would since my house is in Canada and I'd politely inform them that they'd need to talk to the Canadian government and, if they agree, have them make the request. Similarly in the EU US government demands are worthless. Canada and the EU (or at least the UK) have intelligence sharing treaties with the US so they can get access to the data but only if they ask and convince the local government first and it is in compliance with local law.
This is exactly as it should be. MS could end up in real legal trouble if the US government forces them to disclose data on their EU servers in contravention of EU privacy laws.
It's worse than that. Government agents have done industrial espionage on behalf of private enterprise at times as shown in the Boeing vs Airbus case. Hosting companies could be asked to hand over data just because it may be useful to a well connected competitor.
if a gagging order, injunction or U.S. National Security Letter permits it.
Basically, no one will ever be informed.
Quick grammar lesson:
"government access to data in it's cloud services even in Europe"
=
"government access to data in it is cloud services even in Europe"
The correct word is "its"
If the Patriot Act is perceived as a threat to 'cloud technology' (I hate the term) then perhaps these tech giants who have the power to ram their agendas down the throat of the government (Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, IBM, Google, ect.) will lobby against the Patriot Act. If the Patriot Act is bad for business then business may actually take the side of the people and try to use their money and influence to do away with it.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
Ooh! Will this one have blackjack and hookers?
Everyone should take them seriously. Has it not been demonstrated pretty well that the US can extradite anyone and anything they want in most places in the world? Has it not been demonstrated that they can lie to do this with impunity? There are colossal imbalances in power and the US seems to have no problem whatsoever with exploiting that. There is so much that the US does that is apparently illegal by local, international, and even US law and yet the US is apparently never, ever brought to account over it.