Court Ruling Shows The Internet Does Have Borders After All (csoonline.com)

itwbennett writes: Microsoft's recent victory in court, when it was ruled that the physical location of the company's servers in Ireland were out of reach of the U.S. government, was described on Slashdot as being "perceived as a major victory for privacy." But J. Trevor Hughes, president and CEO of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) has a different view of the implications of the ruling that speaks to John Perry Barlow's vision of an independent cyberspace: "By recognizing the jurisdictional boundaries of Ireland, it is possible that the Second Circuit Court created an incentive for other jurisdictions to require data to be held within their national boundaries. We have seen similar laws emerge in Russia -- they fall under a policy trend towards 'data localization' that has many cloud service and global organizations deeply concerned. Which leads to a tough question: what happens if every country tries to assert jurisdictional control over the web? Might we end up with a fractured web, a 'splinternet,' of lessening utility?"

Comments

Short answer

[ebonum]

Yes.

Long answer. China is quickly moving in this direction. 20% of the world's population is quickly moving towards being on an internet island. Currently, the great firewall is a black list. There is talk of it becoming a white list. Of course to get on the white list, companies will have to jump through all sorts of hoops. Including agreeing to terms such as recognizing Taiwan as part of China, that China owns the South China Sea, Japan sucks and the Chinese people are superior in every way, etc. Globally, all content from the company will have to follow rules to promote peaceful, happy society. Otherwise, you company doesn't get access to China. The sad part: most companies will agree in a heartbeat.

Re: Short answer

[Anonymous Coward]

and yet the US government acts as if it has some sort of manifest right to said data wherever it may reside. Well, the data islands may be bad. but I'd sure hate for Herr Erdogan to determine that this post is inflamatory to him and that the US should just compel /. to unmask my anonimity so they can then compel US Marshalls to help facilitate my extradition to Turkey to whatever kangaroo court will soon be set up. Erdogan can just go suck on big Q and shove a big W up his ass.
tl;dr similar laws and policies protect people so why shouldn't data be protected?

Re:I'll take the bait

[Anonymous Coward]

I was with you until the 'idiotic' part.

The idea that cyberspace is space-less, that' it's some vague cloud beyond national laws, has also created lots of (privacy) problems.

I really like my EU protections, and I can see the oposite happening where something like "Our servers are located in the EU" becomes a mark of quality.

No

[PPH]

The Internet has no borders. Court jurisdictions do however.

Countries might try to mandate local storage for their citizens' data. But that is authoritarian control over their citizens, not so much the Internet. Anyone reasonably motivated can still move their data to overseas services if they are willing to incur the risk.