The CLOUD Act and Your Privacy
The Cloud Act was passed by the U.S. house and senate with very little discussion and very people knowing anything about it. It was part of the $1.3 trillion U.S. government spending bill that was rushed through congress in order, among other things, to keep the U.S. government funded.
We’ve been reading about the CLOUD Act and how it impacts all of us who use the Internet. But until now, we haven’t found an article that explained it as well as the article we’re sharing with you today. There’s a lot to understand and a lot of far-reaching implications for the privacy and safety of our personal data It may have limited impact or it my have a universal impact. We don’t know – no one knows. But we think everyone who uses the Internet (and that would be all of you!) should at least know a little about the CLOUD Act.
The article we are featuring here was written by Gavin Phillips, and was published on MakeUseOf on April 11, 2018
If you read the article you’ll understand how far reaching the CLOUD Act is and why you have probably never heard of it.
The CLOUD Act eliminates any protection for overseas data, allowing government agencies to pick and choose where they take your data from. It also fundamentally alters how the police access data held by private companies, like Facebook, Google, and so on.
So, what is the CLOUD Act and how is it destroying your privacy?
The CLOUD Act Explained
The CLOUD Act passed with little fanfare as legislators tacked it onto the end of the must-pass $1.3 trillion government spending bill. Tacking it onto the end of another enormous bill stopped the CLOUD Act coming under serious debate, meaning a considerable amount of citizens have never even heard of it, let alone understand how it drastically alters data privacy.
The Clarifying Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act is a series of laws allowing US law enforcement to access data stored overseas and vice versa. It is an update to the existing Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), passed in 1986. The government and many tech companies believe these laws are ill-equipped for modern digital communications. And the ECPA probably was, given that in 1986 there were between 2,000 to 30,000 systems connected to internet precursor ARPANET.
So, why would such a far-reaching change to legislation fly under the radar? Here are some key facts and information for you…
You are right people need to read it.