Google Admits Handing over European User Data to US Intelligence Agencies
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Google-Admits-Handing-over-European-User-Data... Google Admits Handing over European User Data to US Intelligence Agencies Adjust text size: August 8th, 2011, 15:43 GMT| By Lucian Constantin Google admits sharing EU data with US government Google has admitted complying with requests from US intelligence agencies for data stored in its European data centers, most likely in violation of European Union data protection laws. Gordon Frazer, Microsoft UK's managing director, made news headlines some weeks ago when he admitted that Microsoft can be compelled to share data with the US government regardless of where it is hosted in the world. At the center of this problem is the USA PATRIOT ACT, which states that companies incorporated in the United States must hand over data administered by their foreign subsidiaries if requested. Not only that, but they can be forced to keep quiet about it in order to avoid exposing active investigations and alert those targeted by the probes. This situation poses a serious problem for companies like Microsoft, Google or Amazon, which offer cloud services around the world, because their subsidiaries must also respect local laws. For example, European Union legislation requires companies to protect the personal information of EU citizens and this is clearly not something that Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or any of their EU customers can do. This is not only a theoretical problem. According to German-language magazine WirtschaftsWoche [Google translate], a Google spokesperson confirmed that the company has complied with requests from US intelligence agencies for data stored in its European data centers. The situation is likely to spark an official inquiry from the European Commission, with some members of the European Parliament already reacting to the stories. It's hard to foresee what kind of solution can be found at this point, but one thing's clear - US-based cloud providers operating in EU can be forced to break the law. European companies and government agencies that are using their services are also in a tough position.
European and other nations have long provided private data to US spies under secret sharing agreements. Their protests are nonsense. Hearings on these violations of their citizens and subjects seldom do more than issue demands that the practices stop but do not order action to truly stop them. The reason is that the US (and its contractors) supplies the other nations with data on their citizens and subjects as well as funding and technology for homeland spying. Blaming the hegemon-of-choice is obligatory strut. And most importantly spies do not have to obey laws anywhere and provide exculpation for their mercenaries. This is a global practice not invented in the US, indeed it might be argued that the US is slightly less jaded than other nations who have betrayed in secret fashions developed over millennia -- way before laws were confected to bless official crime to fight threats to hegemons. US hegemons will not be penalized nor lose customers because alternatives are no more trustworthy. Check the gov-protected monopolies cum oligarchies that dominate Euro, Asian, African South American countries which adopted Echelon as home brew either by treaty or by unilateral corporatism -- the path most favored by unregulated billionaires more numerous elsewhere than the US. And they all have spy operations coupled to governments. They all believe the USG is constitutionally delusional.
participants (2)
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Eugen Leitl -
John Young