Microsoft calls for dismissal of U.S. Supreme Court privacy fight
It is really sad and disturbing to me how little coverage the CLOUD act has gotten. A law was passed quietly that was snuck into page 2,201 of an unrelated spending&#x2F;budget bill just before Congress voted on it to allow warrantless surveillance by foreign governments and law enforcement on any US citizen, and not one mainstream media source has written about it. It was signed into law by Trump just a couple days later without a single hearing or debate in Congress.<p>Please read:<p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theregister.co.uk&#x2F;2018&#x2F;03&#x2F;23&#x2F;cloud_act_spending_bill&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theregister.co.uk&#x2F;2018&#x2F;03&#x2F;23&#x2F;cloud_act_spending_...</a><p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eff.org&#x2F;deeplinks&#x2F;2018&#x2F;03&#x2F;responsibility-deflected-cloud-act-passes" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eff.org&#x2F;deeplinks&#x2F;2018&#x2F;03&#x2F;responsibility-deflect...</a><p>I personally believe the Facebook “scandal” is&#x2F;was a smoke screen to draw the media attention away from this (4 or 5 year old scandal with regards to data collected for the Government to begin with). No private information was leaked (private messages, chats, etc) from Facebook as far as I am aware. I am not saying Facebook is innocent here – they are far from it, but I can’t stop thinking that the timing is too convenient and too much of a coincidence. Also recall that Zuckerberg liquidated around $500 million of Facebook stock in February.<p>All of the major tech companies (Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc) co-authored a letter supporting this legislation saying that it represents “notable progress to protect consumers’ rights.” despite the fact that it does the exact opposite. I think it will save them money from drawn out legal battles, legal fees, and the possibility of having to build additional data centers in other countries&#x2F;continents to replicate and provide access to customer’s data for law enforcement agencies.<p>The CLOUD act allows access to ANY data including emails, private messages, etc. without requiring a warrant or having to inform the person that it is being collected. It gives additional power to the executive branch as the attorney general and certain members of the cabinet can access data on unsuspecting individuals without having to notify Congress or the Judicial branch. Also data collected from another party interacting with someone else could be used to criminally prosecute them even if they were not under any suspicion or investigation to begin with.