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V__ | on: Fastmail offers EU data region
For anyone curious, it's the CLOUD act:

> The CLOUD Act primarily amends the Stored Communications Act (SCA) of 1986 to allow federal law enforcement to compel U.S.-based technology companies via warrant or subpoena to provide requested data stored on servers regardless of whether the data are stored in the U.S. or on foreign soil.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLOUD_Act

samudrijan | parent | next
The point of control is Congress, until we stop electing corpratist politicians, we will continue to get bad legislation.
redserk | root | parent
It doesn't matter if it's Congress. At the end of the day America's internal governance systems are America's problem. The rest of the world should not care if a certain branch is causing issues, and frankly, is starting to come to that conclusion.

It's unfortunate for us, but we very rarely isolate individual government systems for other nations.

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braiamp | parent
Which wouldn't matter where the data is located, so I don't think that this is the reason Fastmail is doing it, because a savvy enough company would know that the problem is that the company is US based.
kid64 | root | parent
They're Australian
petcat | root | parent | next
Australian companies are also subject to the USA Cloud Act. As is the UK, with Canada coming on board soon too.

Even the entire EU is in the process of negotiating the same agreement.

https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/united-states-and-ca...

https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-a...

jorvi | root | parent | next
That is plain wrong, and on top of that, the CLOUD act doesn't really solve anything because if the order to obtain data is legal for the US arm but illegal for the EU arm, releasing the data from say Ireland to the US would immediately lead to steep monetary and legal penalties for the EU arm.
petcat | root | parent
It is not wrong...

You can read the text right here:

https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-oia/cloud-act-agre...

The same agreement is in place with the UK. Canada and EU are currently in the process of negotiating it.

yborg | root | parent
Your linked information doesn't indicate anywhere that Australia or any other foreign government is subject to US law. The latter states that negotiation with the EU on this topic was suspended in 2019.

Things have changed. With Chinese law in regards to data within Chinese jurisdiction a long-standing thing and an unfriendly American government potentially in power for an extended period, other countries are realizing the importance of data sovereignty.

petcat | root | parent
https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-oia/cloud-act-agre...

> The latter states that negotiation with the EU on this topic was suspended in 2019.

Dated 2023:

> Justice Department and European Commission Announces Resumption of U.S. and EU Negotiations on Electronic Evidence in Criminal Investigations

The negotiations are still ongoing. Canada is further along than the EU.

perpetuallunch | root | parent | next
That’s not going to help anyone.

The Five Eyes is an Anglosphere intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries are party to the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes

JAlexoid | root | parent
Even being stored in EU doesn't preclude your data from being targeted by signals intelligence. Which is different than requiring US based companies to provide non-US data to American government.

Does fastmail have a US presence? If no - then they're not bound at all by US jurisdiction.

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wolfi1 | root | parent
isn't there this five eyes thingy?