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Patriot Act vs. the EU's Data Protection Directive
itwbennett writes "Last week, Microsoft warned that under the Patriot Act the company may be compelled to hand over European customers' data on its new cloud service to U.S. authorities — and also to keep the data transfer secret. This, of course, runs counter to the European Data Protection Directive, which states that organizations must inform users when they disclose personal information. 'Microsoft can already transfer E.U. data to the U.S. under the Safe Harbor agreement. But legal experts have warned that this agreement is hardly worth the paper it's written on,' writes IDG News Service's Jennifer Baker. 'There are seven principles of Safe Harbor, including reasonable data security, and clearly defined and effective enforcement. However all this is nullified if the Patriot Act is invoked.'"
Seriously, why can't we get rid of it?
The internet short circuited two jurisdictions causing paradoxical rift in cyberlegalspace.
Korma: Good
...win again.
I'm someone interested in releasing my software.
I've worked on this software for about 1 year my time, and done things I think are "research" in their newness.
Releasing any software in the U.S. is basically opening me up to a multitude of unfounded lawsuits and I become a target for corporate espionage - why do I bother.
As a euro developer - I must confess that the U.S. is looking less and less interesting as a revenue source.
All the "steal people's data" and the "we control domains" - why on earth would I think about building a business in this piranha pool?
Ok lets ask an easier question.... ... Who doesn't have access to my personal data ?
There are specific exceptions for 'National Security' in both the European directive and each country's implementation (eg the Data Protection Act in the UK).
So all the US needs to do is find a shill (the UK government would be my guess at their first choice) who will declare that they need to export 'this' data as a matter of 'National Security' (honest!) and Microsoft and in the clear and the US get what they want.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
What it means is that European companies face a fine under the data protection act if they use a cloud service in the USA. I would have thought that it would give the USA more incentive to change the rules than the EU.
It gives the USA incentive to bully the EU into changing its rules, yes. Wait for a relevant Wikileaks release in a year or two.
There was this brief period during the fallout from the Enlightenment when great men believed that liberty was worth the additional dangers it might add. But, in general, people are too dull and too easily frightened to understand that. They're too easily overawed, too easily swayed by emotional appeals, and lacking in sufficient ability to evaluate statements such as "We're increasing surveillance to maintain your freedoms" and realize that the two notions are diametrically opposed.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The USA is screwing the only friends they have left over (again)...
So whats the news again?
I learned a bit about the Patriot Act when buying a house. Prior to the Patriot Act you had to disclose sufficient financial information to the bank for them to take the risk of the loan. You had to prove you had the down payment, provide a credit report, and appraise the house. But they didn't really care where or how you got the money. But under the Patriot Act you have to provide an audit trail for all of your assets. For example, you must show where you got your down payment from and where it was for the past 6 months, etc. In my case I sold stocks so I had to show tons of statements prove that the money really came from those stocks, not some other place.
It was fairly creepy. I felt like I was depositing money in a bank and the government required proof that I didn't get the money by selling drugs. It really slowed things down and complicated it. I used to watch TV shows where the police had ridiculous access to people's information, but I see now how that is happening. I can imagine a time when the government can track every dollar - where it goes and where it came from.
This is probably exactly what will happen. Remember the SWIFT treaty, about transferring bank transaction data from the EU to the US? The European parliament rejected it because of privacy concerns. Then, after a few months of arm-twisting from national governments and visits by Joe Biden among others, the Commission presented a new treaty with some cosmetic changes which was passed in the parliament with a large majority.
EUs stricter privacy laws are there in spite of its politicians, not because of them, and they are being hacked away at bit by bit.
t2t10 fantasises that "While European nations were busy raping and pillaging across the globe, American was mostly farming and building up an industrial base."
Really? So the US wasn't busy wiping out the indigenous populations by both direct military means but also using biological weapons (blankets infected with small pox)?
They weren't making unprovoked attacks on other nations: Britain (War of 1812), Spain (repeatedly) and Mexico. If we'd applied the same standards to the US then as was applied to Germany after WW2 your leaders would have been hanged as well for carrying out wars of aggression.
The US fought a civil war because so many of you thought it was the moral and ethical thing to do to keep millions of other human beings enslaved in order to maintain their life-style.
And of course you were also busy discriminating against your own citizens, quite legally, until the middle of the 20th. And still are but not with quite the same degree of overt legal sanction- what proportion of the prison population in your country is black? How much more likely is a black-man to be executed for a crime compared to a white-man who commits the same crime?.
I think you're looking at your country's history through rose tinted glasses. The US has, through out it's history, been an opportunistic bully.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.