US Patriot Act verses the World's data causing world wide anxiety

[lovuian]

The Patriot Act and Your Data: Should You Ask Cloud Providers About Protection?
Does the USA Patriot Act give the U.S. government too much access to data stored on the cloud servers of American providers regardless of where those servers are located? That's the concern among European IT leaders.

Worries have been steadily growing among European IT leaders that the USA Patriot Act would give the U.S. government unfettered access to their data if stored on the cloud servers of American providers—so much so that Obama administration officials this week held a press conference to quell international concern over the protection of data stored on U.S. soil.

The unease over the reach of Patriot Act provision—which expands the discovery mechanisms law enforcement can use to access third-party data—has been amped up by the sales and marketing efforts of some European cloud providers, seeking to set apart their services as a way to keep corporate data out of the hands of the American government. The most blatant examples are two Swiss companies touting their cloud options as "a safe haven from the reaches of the U.S. Patriot Act," but it's become a popular topic at negotiating tables across the continent. "I don't see how you have a pitch meeting with one of these European cloud providers and not have subject of the Patriot Act concerns come up," says Alex Lakatos, a partner and cross-border litigation expert in the Washington, D.C. office of Mayer Brown.

Anxiety was heightened last year when a Microsoft UK managing director admitted that he could not guarantee that data stored on the company's servers, even those outside the U.S., would not be seized by the U.S. government.

http://www.cio.com/article/698432/The_Patriot_Act_and_Your_Data_Should_You_Ask_Cloud_Providers_About_Protection_??source=cwartsnip

The Patriot Act seems to have tentacles that reach all over the world

[liberaltalkingpoints]

1. How can the Obama administration speak for future executives?

The Patriot Act is the law of the land and will outlast the Obama administration. Just because one president chooses not to enforce provisions within the act does not mean the next president will follow the same policy.