Should Governments Be Able to Look at Your Data When It’s Abroad?

Nation’s legal systems struggle to keep up with the internet’s borderless development – just how, where and when law enforcement agencies should access stored data. An article in the Economist explains that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation expects to access Microsoft messages stored in a data center based in Ireland with US warrants: “at the core of the case is one of the most knotty legal questions in the age of cloud computing: how to give law-enforcement agencies access to evidence when laws remain national, but data are often stored abroad and sometimes even at multiple places at once?” The US government maintains that a company’s nationality matters more than the data’s location. Microsoft expects the enforcement agency to secure an Irish warrant. Companies realize that clients value confidentiality and want to avoid getting caught in the middle of conflicting laws. The Economist urges governments to develop a transparent system of transparent, fair and reasonable mutual legal assistance. – YaleGlobal