Posted on 12/15/2014 6:43:14 AM PST by Alas Babylon!
Imagine this scenario. German police investigating a press leak descend on Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt. They serve a warrant to seize a bundle of private letters a US reporter is storing in a safe deposit box at a bank branch in Manhattan. The bank complies and orders the branch manager to open the reporter’s box and fax the private letters to the Stadtpolizei.
Uproar! The US would be outraged at the bypassing of bilateral agreements and flouting of its citizen’s rights. And yet this is exactly what the US government is ordering Microsoft to do, according to the software giant’s general counsel, Brad Smith.
*snip*
Microsoft’s appeal is backed by Apple, AT&T, Cisco, Verizon and others, all of whom argue that a final decision in favour of the US government would create a “dramatic conflict with foreign data protection laws”. Germany has already stated that if the decision is upheld, it will not store data with US cloud service providers.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Note this is NOT just about Microsoft, but ALL tech companies that process, store and deliver YOUR data, data that may well be confidential and private to you.
Microsoft?
The same Microsoft that willingly sold its data mine to .Gov for cash?
THAT Microsoft?
Just another example of the fact that ANY information you place in or on ANY public-accessed media is NOT PRIVATE. This includes all forms of public communication and networking. Amazing still how many people think that a phone conversation or Internet traffic is somehow “private”.
Always food for thought.
If the data is not on your server and in your building it is not your data. The “cloud” is just like outsourcing/off-shoring and opening yourself to your technology being appropriated by those you hire (to save costs) and disseminated (not to say it cannot happen with an all in country staff). In a push to trim storage costs you give up your security.
Bad thing is Microsoft is the one fighting this. Their legal dept is awful. They always lose.
What a load! The NSA doesn’t give a whit about the law, they’ll sign on to anything and go their merry way.
Net privacy from a determined foe is dead. Use the internet at your own peril.
As personal/private/confidential data becomes ever more voluminous & insightful, and as more companies handle ever more of it as a side effect of their business (ex.: MS & Apple’s voracious cloud hosting, when they just want to sell products), many companies will take a keen interest in _not_ being responsible for that data in any way beyond reliably hosting it. US Tech Companies _want_ to do hard encryption and promote privacy because they want to _not_ get sucked into anything related to crime, prosecution, “pre-crime” monitoring, or other such activities way outside their competence & interests.
SCOTUS really need address & update the “secure in one’s papers and effects”. Such things are no longer limited to one’s physical home/workplace/luggage, but the practical perception is they are.
Chalk “respect hard encryption” up to the growing list of Executive Orders I’d Issue If I Became President.
The government has been green with envy in controling internet talk. They feel we are stepoing on their toes by developing technologies they cannot grasp.
We are run by a bunch of paranoiac psychopaths. It has nothing to do withthe war on terror, but purely political underdealings.
We’re not talking “public access” data, this is more like considering vehicles & storage units an extension of your home.
This just doesn’t apply to data you “put out on the cloud”. If you system is connected to the Internet your data is JUST as potentially compromisable as if it is put on some cloud server.
Firewalls help. Turning off protocols not be used and blocking their ports help. IDS helps. ACLs help. But when you plug a computer into a network it communicates and has the potential to be discovered and attacked.
I think most FReepers would agree that the government is too powerful.
Encrypt all data in motion and at rest--highest levels you can.
Do not connect computers storing sensitive information to a public network of any kind, yet still encrypt it so a team of government thugs can't break in and steal/copy it.
Protect your encryption keys by the most ingenious ways you can think of. I won't even elaborate on what ways I use. Makes it harder to guess/find.
When my spouse recently discussed with me my option of uploading all my photos, etc. to an online cloud, I said no, I felt it was a security threat. I also feel that things like Cobalt are not any more secure.
They've only given a damn about it once Snowden aired their dirty secrets. They have been happily handing over anything requested by Fedgov for decades, and now, all of the sudden, they are interested in privacy? Hardly. They are just trying to ameliorate the PR hit they took once everyone was told what weasels they've been.
So when is Utah going to shut off the water supply to the NSA’s data center? Disband the NSA and the CIA. These have morphed into enemies of the citizens of this country. I’m positive that these are blackmailing politicians of this country.
However, I might reconsider my stand if they release all they know about Bath House.
Additional food for thought...
No current means of communications is private. Period.
Even the U.S. Mail. You want privacy? Limit yourself to face to face communications or hire private couriers.
The Fourth Amendment died during my lifetime.
The 4th amendment “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
My data is my personal papers and effects. Anyone who steals them with no warrant does so illegally. They may be shot if they walk in the door of my house and start rifling through everything with no warrant. Interesting dichotomy.
“If the data is not on your server and in your building it is not your data.”
Bullcrap, if I store my physical business records with a storage service, they most certainly do not cease to be my property. Except to a Nazi.
Perhaps it's time to revisit the relevant question...
I have often read that LEOs serving search warrants do not believe in the right for their target to read and understand the details of the warrant and the opportunity to have counsel present before they take the premises apart.
That has always struck me as a de facto nullification of the Fourth Amendment provisions of "...particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
The obvious questions
If the warrant does not particularly describe a body in the basement freezer, may that be seized?
How about cigarettes with no State tax stamps?
Or an illegal stuffed endangered special animal that has been handed down for 5 generations?
Or possession of ivory, without determining its age?
Do the enforcement arms of "governments" now feel entitled to interpret the meaning of words? To interpolate or extrapolate items not "specifically" listed?
Surely, there must be some limitations.
That’s a fine list. And all very true. But that is all defensive against a government utterly out of control. If your home had a psychopath living next door, it would be as if you said lock all doors and windows, always carry a ball bat when you walk out to the car, etc etc.
At some point, the psychopath needs to be dealt with. Almost all of these methods are to defend us against governments.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.