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The natural reaction of many citizens, companies and governments is to try to get their data out of the United States and out of the hands of American companies. The idea is a seductive one, even for Americans. Offshoring money has been a popular strategy for tax avoidance. Why not offshore data to a foreign company?
This offshoring of data to avoid surveillance is not just an idle notion. As a privacy lawyer with experience in the intelligence community and the Obama White House, technology companies have asked me how they might pursue such a strategy. It turns out that shifting user data abroad or into the hands of foreign companies is a very poor way to combat American surveillance.
The Justice Department may put a lot of pressure on Swiss banks, but it doesn’t hack into offshore accounts to recover ill-gotten gains. By contrast, intelligence agencies are not known for scrupulously observing the laws of foreign countries in which they operate, even when (as in the United States) they are subject to a system of domestic legal oversight.
NSA directors have stated quite openly their desire to collect everything American law permits. However, what the law allows the NSA to do varies starkly depending on where data is collected. Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the rules that apply to data collected from a switch, wire, or server in the United States are stricter than the safeguards that apply to data collected overseas.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday January 05 2015, @10:58PM
Move your data offshore and it's fair game for the NSA, since anything outside of the US is their playground.
Keep your data inside US borders, and the NSA is bound by law not to violate your rights re surveillance.
Problems:
- The NSA has already demonstrated they don't give a shit about the law or the constitution if they can get away with it.
- Even when they do pretend they follow the law, they stretch the interpretation of the law until it stops applying to them.
- The US government has already proven numerous times they don't give a shit about the constitution, and most lawmakers are bought and sold on the marketplace.
In short, your data is probably safer outside a corrupt, semi-fascist United States than inside it. Better having zero guarantee of having your data kept safe abroad, than all guarantees that it won't at home.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday January 05 2015, @11:03PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 06 2015, @11:10AM
The TLA's budgets are unlimited. The Federal Reserve will print however much money is necessary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 06 2015, @09:19AM
That's only true if you're a US citizen residing in the US. Anyone else is fair game anyway.