5 ms·

The CLOUD act makes this illegal.

by chopin 4y ago

908B64B197 4y ago
At this point, I'm pretty convinced these Europeans legislations are about being as vague as possible so that they can target pretty much any entity they (the state) doesn't like with fines and legal threats. It all works because the public are made to believe these are good because they seem to go after some boogeymen (the evil foreign tech companies and the United-States).
- jeroenhd 4y ago
  The United States have decided that they will not provide the same protections required by the EU when it comes to EU citizens' data. That's a choice the American government can and has made. The economic barrier is clearly worth the sovereignty and national security benefit of the government being able to demand data about foreigners without protections or recourse according to lawmakers and that's fair enough to me. The American CLOUD act grants certain agencies the right to demand data stored in European countries from American companies. This means American companies can either choose to comply with American law, providing said data, or with European law, refusing to provide the data without getting European courts involved. Refusing national security demands from the American government becomes very problematic real fast, especially when gag orders are involved, so companies and American citizens simply cannot be expected to comply with European law. This choice has the consequence that American companies cannot be trusted to process PII (which is very broad) in any legal sense. Whether or not those companies go evil doesn't matter, the problem lies with the legal protection implemented by the American government. I'd expect a CLOUD act equivalent from the EU (forcing companies with American offices to hand over the data of American citizens to secret European courts under the guise of national security) will be met with significant protest across the political spectrum. In fact, I would be disappointed if that wasn't protested. Surely Amazon, Microsoft and Google would be pressured to split off or shut down European operations if American citizens would suddenly become at risk of being spied on by foreign governments. If I were an American citizen, I'd certainly want politicians to do something about it!

The CLOUD act makes this illegal.

by chopin 4y ago

The CLOUD act makes this illegal.

At this point, I'm pretty convinced these Europeans legislations are about being as vague as possible so that they can target pretty much any entity they (the state) doesn't like with fines and legal threats. It all works because the public are made to believe these are good because they seem to go after some boogeymen (the evil foreign tech companies and the United-States).

jeroenhd 4y ago
The United States have decided that they will not provide the same protections required by the EU when it comes to EU citizens' data. That's a choice the American government can and has made. The economic barrier is clearly worth the sovereignty and national security benefit of the government being able to demand data about foreigners without protections or recourse according to lawmakers and that's fair enough to me. The American CLOUD act grants certain agencies the right to demand data stored in European countries from American companies. This means American companies can either choose to comply with American law, providing said data, or with European law, refusing to provide the data without getting European courts involved. Refusing national security demands from the American government becomes very problematic real fast, especially when gag orders are involved, so companies and American citizens simply cannot be expected to comply with European law. This choice has the consequence that American companies cannot be trusted to process PII (which is very broad) in any legal sense. Whether or not those companies go evil doesn't matter, the problem lies with the legal protection implemented by the American government. I'd expect a CLOUD act equivalent from the EU (forcing companies with American offices to hand over the data of American citizens to secret European courts under the guise of national security) will be met with significant protest across the political spectrum. In fact, I would be disappointed if that wasn't protested. Surely Amazon, Microsoft and Google would be pressured to split off or shut down European operations if American citizens would suddenly become at risk of being spied on by foreign governments. If I were an American citizen, I'd certainly want politicians to do something about it!