Cloud Act passes in budget bill making moot Supreme Court case on access to overseas data

The budget bill signed by President Donald Trump on Friday, March 23 will update a federal law allowing government officials with a warrant to obtain e-mails from tech companies storing the data overseas. The U.S. Supreme Court was considering the case brought by Microsoft who contested a government order to cough up e-mails wanted in a drug trafficking investigation. Part of the budget bill, the Cloud Act updates a 1986 law on searches of stored electronic data and makes it unnecessary for the Supreme Court to take action.  (The Associated Press, March 22, 2018, by Mark Sherman)

Two law professors argue that the Cloud Act, while not perfect, affords a number of important protections. Among its stipulations, the act requires foreign governments seeking data to obtain warrants based on probable cause; it requires requests to be subject to legal review; it limits requests to a specific person, account address or other identifier; and it prohibits use of information to infringe on freedom of speech. (International Association of Privacy Professionals, March 26, 2018, by Jennifer Daskal and Peter Swire)

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