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Does US Have Right To Data On Overseas Servers? We're About To Find Out (arstechnica.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader quotes Ars Technica:
The Justice Department on Friday petitioned the US Supreme Court to step into an international legal thicket, one that asks whether US search warrants extend to data stored on foreign servers. The US government says it has the legal right, with a valid court warrant, to reach into the world's servers with the assistance of the tech sector, no matter where the data is stored.
The request for Supreme Court intervention concerns a 4-year-old legal battle between Microsoft and the US government over data stored on Dublin, Ireland servers. The US government has a valid warrant for the e-mail as part of a drug investigation. Microsoft balked at the warrant, and convinced a federal appeals court that US law does not apply to foreign data.
According to the article, the U.S. government told the court that national security was at risk.
The request for Supreme Court intervention concerns a 4-year-old legal battle between Microsoft and the US government over data stored on Dublin, Ireland servers. The US government has a valid warrant for the e-mail as part of a drug investigation. Microsoft balked at the warrant, and convinced a federal appeals court that US law does not apply to foreign data.
According to the article, the U.S. government told the court that national security was at risk.
I'm waiting for the day that North Korea will issue a warrant to search the NSAs computers. After all, Kim might find stuff related to his national security....
Except for the little detail that the other country has data protection laws that make it illegal to do so. An American court should not be able to override the law where it seems to have had no intent to hide the data from the American authorities.
even if the laws in that other country prevent you from doing so? European data privacy laws tend tp be much stronger than in the US, and US courts have no authority outside the US to overrule other countries laws. If Microsoft complied with the US court order it would be breaking the law in Ireland. They're between a rock and a hard place...
Actually, it's more like the US wants international law where it's favourable to the US, and wants to ignore it otherwise.
Of course, the US is not alone in this regard.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
There is a national security issue here, but not the one you're probably thinking of.
If the SCotUS decides this in favor of the U.S. government, this isn't going to end the way they think it will. The U.S. companies aren't going to roll over and hand over the information the U.S. government wants. They're going to expatriate and reincorporate in another country which doesn't have such overreaching search and seizure laws.
The stupid IRS policy of taxing all income earned abroad simply because you're a U.S. citizen already causes wealthy Americans to move abroad (with their money) and give up their U.S. citizenship. A bad decision here will start the same exodus among U.S.-based multinational corporations. That's the national security issue here - the nation's economic security is being put at risk due to the U.S. government trying to make its laws and authority apply outside of the U.S.
If they are not soldiers then they are civilians, entitled to a lawyer and a speedy trial. Getting held for decades and getting tortured without even being charged with a crime is a clear violation of US law. Also they should be charged under the legal system where the "Crime" was committed (Afghanistan, Iraq etc), not the USA. If you want the world to treat you as the "Good Guys" you have to act the part.