SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The Supreme Court announced Monday that it would hear a major digital privacy case that will determine whether law enforcement officials can demand user data stored by technology companies in other countries.
In 2013, federal investigators obtained a warrant for emails and identifying information tied to a Microsoft Outlook account they believed was being used to organize drug trafficking. The problem was that the emails were stored overseas in Ireland, where the anonymous user of the account registered as a resident.
...
If the court sides with the Department of Justice lawyers in this new case, the government will have unfettered access to the data tech companies store all over the world, provided it has a warrant. During the appeals court case, Microsoft's lawyers argued that the US is essentially trying to say that its laws extend across borders.
A superpower can demand all the extraterritoriality it wants.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday October 17 2017, @09:08PM (19 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday October 17 2017, @09:25PM (2 children)
SCOTUS will likely punt on a technicality, while gently encouraging Congress to provide Treaties.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday October 18 2017, @12:03AM
Hopefully. Because if they really think that the US can demand data from any US-related business anywhere in the world, then presumably they must also be OK with foreign-owned companies in the US shipping data back offshore too.
Politicians have the latitude to be hypocrites when it comes to foreign relations (or just about anything else really), but do the nation's highest judges have the freedom to do the same? We'll find out soon.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by choose another one on Wednesday October 18 2017, @07:37AM
The treaties (MLAT) already exist. The US could easily just request the data from Ireland, it either (a) can't be bothered or (b) doesn't want to explain why it wants it to an Irish court, possibly because it is actually just whatever a fishing expedition is termed in EU law.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday October 17 2017, @09:31PM (14 children)
Indeed. This is an ugly precedent for the next generation of superpowers. I suspect however, that China or whoever comes next won't have a need for it. They'll just do what they can get away with doing.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2017, @10:14PM (3 children)
Which is different from the US how exactly?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2017, @10:17PM (1 child)
China won't bother with a puppet show.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2017, @10:50PM
Or a warrant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @10:24AM
It is different in scale. By the numbers, China will be a much more imposing superpower, able to get away with much more than USA.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday October 17 2017, @10:50PM (9 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday October 17 2017, @11:09PM (8 children)
I don't buy it. Being a superpower is a very strong level of cover in itself.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Wednesday October 18 2017, @02:41AM (7 children)
China is a rising superpower, while the US is a declining hyperpower.
The US still needs pliant allies all around the world to get its way, and China will be in the same situation for the forseeable future, even after eclipsing us.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @01:17PM (6 children)
I've never heard the term hyperpower before. What are the distinctions between hyperpower and superpower?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday October 18 2017, @01:45PM (5 children)
The US never was that. It's comparable to the EU in terms of economic and R&D activity. And Russia retained its nuclear arsenal so the US never dominated the military side either.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday October 19 2017, @05:41AM (4 children)
The US has been labeled a hyperpower for decades and not just because of that military dominance. English is the international language - and not British English. The cinema in every country screen all the big Hollywood pictures. Television in every country shows US sitcoms. Radio in every country plays hits from the US. PCs in every country are afflicted by Microsoft and Apple. Sure there are other players, there are British bands and German tv shows and India has bollywood and so on but none of them rival that cultural influence.
And it's political too, of course. No one has more allies. No one has a larger arms industry. And no one else comes anywhere close in terms of 'military interventions' - what in plain language were once called invasions - around the world.
The Chinese are too big for us to hold down in the longterm, economically, and in human terms. But they don't have anywhere near our abilities in so many critical areas to contest that dominance outside their own backyard. They are acutely aware of this and their military strategy is based on it by the way. Russia has been, barely, managing to maintain parity in a few key areas while abandoning hope elsewhere. Both of those nations have military doctrines based around defensive wars fought within their own territory or in areas adjacent to their borders btw. It's the US who openly follows a rather aggressive doctrine sometimes called 'full spectrum dominance' which is based on being willing and able to attack anyone anywhere at any time for any reason.
That considered I think 'hyperpower' is not such a bad fit.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday October 19 2017, @03:34PM (3 children)
Except, of course, when that doesn't happen. And a lot of the above US culture hits are actually foreign owned. Economically, let us remember that the US has operated under significant trade deficits since the 1970s and has huge foreign investments in the economy (around $12 trillion [cnn.com] just for stocks and bonds in 2015).
(Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday October 19 2017, @04:04PM (1 child)
And this in no way reduces their cultural effect.
"Economically, let us remember that the US has operated under significant trade deficits since the 1970s and has huge foreign investments in the economy (around $12 trillion [cnn.com] just for stocks and bonds in 2015)."
So what?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday October 20 2017, @12:33AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 20 2017, @05:22AM
> the US has operated under significant trade deficits since the 1970s
The ancient Romans called it "tributes."
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday October 17 2017, @11:26PM
The best part about extending extraterritoriality reach is how well it interacts with intellectual property and the recent case of Dotcom. Soon enough, you'll have foreign courts confiscating multi billion dollar patents when some US exec fails to appear before them under some trumped-up charges and as such being declared fugitive.
Crossing finger for Microsoft to lose. Seeing it all collapse will be glorious.
compiling...