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Original URL: US state legal supremos show lots of love for proposed CLOUD Act (a law to snoop on citizens' info stored abroad)
The attorneys general of 35 US states on Wednesday signed an open letter calling for the quick passage of the Clarify Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act – with some qualifications.
[...] In effect, it means the FBI can ask, say, a California court for a subpoena to obtain files from a San Francisco upstart's servers hosted in France, sidestepping French privacy laws and legal system. The act's wording also does not limit the Feds to serving orders for communications on US companies and entities – agents would be able to demand information from whomever they wished, if a US judge approved.
The draft law also allows foreign governments to ask for non-US-citizens' personal data stored in America, under new sharing agreements that would be worked out by the White House.
The CLOUD Act was drawn up in part as a result of the ongoing court battle between Microsoft and US law enforcement: Uncle Sam wants a Microsoft customer's email messages stored on a Microsoft-run server in Ireland. The Feds went to a judge in New York for the information, but Redmond wants prosecutors to go to Ireland and ask an Irish judge for permission.
Microsoft, essentially, is arguing that, because the data in question is stored on servers in Ireland, the g-men's request – made under the 1986 US Stored Communications Act – is invalid. The US Supreme Court will consider the case this year.
[...] "The Act also creates incentives for our foreign partners to enter into bilateral agreements that will facilitate cross-border criminal investigations, while ensuring that privacy and civil liberties are respected."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 26 2018, @03:54PM (4 children)
Time was, spying was high treason punishable by summary execution. Then we started flying planes so high that they (usually) couldn't be shot down, and not much later flying satellites over foreign soil which could (by informal account) read the nametag of a soldier in the field in Vietnam. Spying is still illegal, but somehow this new technology made it O.K. for the U.S. to photograph inside the walls of the Kremlin, and even track interior activity through infrared and radar...
While I can see clear argument for data at rest in a server being subject to the laws and protections of the sovereign nation in which the server is located, when that data is "in flight" on the internet it would seem to be much closer to public domain, like Stephen Wright leaning out a window to smile for a satellite picture - it's just how things are. Now, as for:
That's just world government trying to sputter to life, again. As long as powerful individuals outweigh the power of the largest governments, they will keep the world's governments fragmented - they're easier to control that way.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Monday February 26 2018, @04:41PM
[...]
Come on. It's never been illegal in a country to spy on another country. The illegality is always one way, when an outside entity spies on the country.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday February 26 2018, @05:23PM (1 child)
When was that time?
And in what country?
Historically Treason has not been charged unless there was an act of war declared by congress, because to do so required designating some other country an "enemy". Further, the only entity that could be charged with treason in your scenario would be the US government itself. Now THERE's a can of worms.
Back to school son. You have to find a different way.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 26 2018, @08:15PM
Because, to kill him would have been a waste of a political bargaining chip.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:42AM