Amazon Vows To Fight Government Requests For Data

itwbennett writes "Speaking at a cloud panel discussion hosted by Reuters on Wednesday, Terry Wise, head of global partner ecosystem for Amazon Web Services, explained how the company handles government requests for data stored on Amazon's cloud: 'If a U.S. entity is serving us with a legally binding subpoena, we contact our customer and work with that customer to fight the subpoena.' But Wise's best advice to customers is to encrypt their data: 'If the data is encrypted, all we'd be handing over would be the cypher text,' he said."

Comments

Don't make promises you can't keep

[wickerprints]

Amazon's position may be principled, but it won't do any good to fight the subpoena. We have already seen that the FISC (FISA court) is just a rubber stamp operation, and that the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the government want ever greater power and authority under the guise of the "war on terror." Indeed, according to the government, it would be illegal for Amazon to inform the individual(s) whose information is being requested that a request even exists.

The problem isn't merely that warrantless surveillance exists. The problem is that there are no checks in place, no means by which the people themselves, can directly hold the government accountable for such programs. Constitutionality is a farce, easily overcome in the name of "national security." And this is precisely what the terrorists hope to achieve--the use of guerrilla tactics to provoke a government to enact increasingly draconian laws and curtail basic civil liberties, until the government becomes the oppressor against its people. Their eventual goal is to cause the collapse of that government. To this end, such surveillance programs play into the hands of the terrorists.

Also, the proper word is "ciphertext." Not "cypher text."