The CLOUD Act, which allows US law enforcement to use a warrant or subpoena to compel U.S.-based technology companies to provide data stored on servers regardless of where the data is located, was first introduced in the United States in 2018. Canada and the US recently announced plans to negotiate a Cloud Act agreement which would ease cross-border disclosures of data between the two countries.
David Fraser is a lawyer with McInnes Cooper in Halifax and one of Canada’s leading privacy experts. He regularly acts for clients on data disclosure matters and was one of the first to highlight the negotiations and its implications on his Youtube channel. He joins the Law Bytes podcast to talk about the Cloud Act, how it might fit into Canada’s privacy law framework, and how Canada should approach the negotiations.
The podcast can be downloaded here, accessed on YouTube, and is embedded below. Subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify or the RSS feed. Updates on the podcast on Twitter at @Lawbytespod.
Show Notes:
Privacy Lawyer Blog, Canada – US Announce Beginning of CLOUD Act Negotiations
United States and Canada Welcome Negotiations of a CLOUD Act Agreement
Credits:
What is to stop the US government from demanding Canadian personal data from US companies that those companies store on servers:
1. In the US?
2. In Canada?
Many government agencies have agreements with US companies to store personal data of Canadians on the cloud.
There is a a lot going on beyond these agreeements, but if there is no benefit in it then this issue will need to resolved.