CLOUD Act gives U.S, foreign law enforcement more access to Americans' emails

[sl8]

Source: UPI

By Ray Downs | March 25, 2018 at 8:28 PM

March 25 (UPI) -- U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies will now have easier access to Americans' electronic communications after a new that was included in the federal spending bill.

The Clarifying Overseas Use of Data Act, also known as the CLOUD Act, gives law enforcement access to "the contents of a wire or electronic communication and any record or other information" if those contents are stored in servers overseas, regardless of the privacy laws in that country.

In addition, the CLOUD Act allows the President of the United States to enter into agreements with other countries to share private electronic communications and data of individuals regardless of the privacy laws of each country.

The sponsors of the bill -- Senators Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Chris Coons, D-Del., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. -- said it allows laws to catch up with technology.

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Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/03/25/CLOUD-Act-gives-US-foreign-law-enforcement-more-access-to-Americans-emails/1021522020817/?utm_source=sec&utm_campaign=sl&utm_medium=1

[yallerdawg]

1. Isn't this what has undone a White House?

At least we are still assured the Dotard and his minions remain as stupid as we thought they were!

[SergeStorms]

2. Another nail....

in the coffin of personal privacy in this, and any other, country.

[Hortensis]

4. Damn that one-world government! :) Agree that

we're decades behind in securing internet privacy. Obviously! But somehow I doubt this found its way into the bill and approved by leaders of both parties without being necessary to fighting off internet attacks on our rights, including our sovereignty.

[DFW]

3. Not eactly a surprise

I've been operating under the assumption that al my private email has been accessible to both US and foreign snooping for over a decade now.

And it's not just to find out if I have upgraded to Windows 10 yet, either.

[Hortensis]

5. :) I don't email Ukraine or St. Petersburg very often,

but I also just kind of assumed those were being intercepted and decrypted all along.

[sl8]

6. It's not the locations of the recipients or sender that matter here.

Last edited Mon Mar 26, 2018, 09:51 AM - Edit history (2)

It's the storage location. Also, it's not just email, it's any data. And, with the proliferation of "cloud" storage, it's becoming more and more difficult to know exactly where, geographically, your data is being stored.

The current United States v. Microsoft case before the Supreme Court is one example.

[DFW]

7. Yeah, nor do I

But they have filters to sort out emails they think might be of use to them later on. It saves them time in sifting through what are the best and worst recipes for escargot in chocolate sauce.

[Hortensis]

8. sl8's post is interesting. I'd better check our cloud

storage provider to make sure theirs isn't licensed out of the country, especially one of our current "enemies," like Yemen or Chad.

[DFW]

9. I'm so out of it

I don't have cloud storage, or even have a very good idea what it is.

[Hortensis]

10. Cloud is "out there somewhere," vague wave of hand in air. :)

It's where we stick our family pictures and videos especially, and where I upload recipes and make shopping lists so I can pull them up on my phone at the store.

We're not as good as we should be at backing up data, especially with now several devices, and that way when one of them crashes the data in cloud storage are safe. I.e., they're all stored on commercial devices that're professionally maintained and, we lightheartedly hope, kept secure against theft as well.

[mahigan]

11. Information needed

I have been interested in ways to keep a low profile for several years. I was going to suggest to US activists that they consider looking in to web hosting services here in Canada. Some web hosting services here do not outsource any of their operations including web hosting, email and cloud services - everything is stored on their own computers in their own facilities in Canada.

This would mean that any US government entities would, at least, have to deal with our laws and government instead of simply being able to slap a court order on a US based service. I would think that the CDN gov. would object to any seizure/shut down action by the US gov without at least some negotiated agreement between the 2 countries.

I don't trust any VPN other than one I operate myself. There have been people busted on the basis of logs that a VPN service kept while advertising they don't keep logs so I'm planning on setting up my own VPN as soon as I get the time. This is a lot like the old days with anonymous email servers. We all knew that governments and agencies were operating nodes so some of us put on an extra layer of protection by ensuring that at least one hop was our own.

I have been thinking that a US activist using their own VPN to access their Canadian servers would have a security advantage over using a US service but I'm not familiar with the CLOUD Act and don't know how it would affect this set up. Anyone have thoughts on this?