<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Hi All<br>
<br>
There was some demand on the bestbits list that we still need to ask
a lot of questions from the involved companies in terms of the
recent PRISM plus disclosures. We are being too soft on them. I
refuse to believe that everything they did was forced upon on them.
Apart from the fact that there are <a
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-14/u-s-agencies-said-to-swap-data-with-thousands-of-firms.html">news
reports</a> that US based tech companies regularly share data with
US gov for different kinds of favours in return, or even simply
motivated by nationalistic feeling, we should not forget that many
of these companies have strong political agenda which are closely
associated with that of the US gov. You must all know about '<a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Ideas">Google Ideas</a>',
its revolving doors with US gov's security apparatus, and its own
aggressive <a
href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34535.htm">regime
change ideas</a>. Facebook also is known to 'like' some things,
say in MENA region, and not other things in the same region.....<br>
<br>
<font face="Verdana">Firstly, one would want to know </font>whether
the obligations to share data with US government extended only to
such data that is actually located in, or flows, through, the US.
Or, does it extend to all data within the legal control/ ownership
of these companies wherever it may reside. (I think, certainly
hope, it must be the former, but still I want to be absolutely sure,
and hear directly from these companies.)<br>
<br>
Now, if the obligation was to share only such data that actually
resided in servers inside the US, why did these companies, in face
of what was obviously very broad and intrusive demands for sharing
data about non US citizens, not simply locate much of such data
outside the US. For instance, it could pick up the top 10 countries,
the data of whose citizens was repeatedly sought by US authorities,
and shift all their data to servers in other countries that made no
such demand? Now, we know that many of the involved companies have
set up near fictitious companies headquartered in strange places for
the purpose of tax avoidance/ evasion. Why could they not do for the
sake of protecting human rights, well, lets only say, the trust, of
non US citizens/ consumers, what they so very efficiently did for
enhancing their bottom-lines? <br>
<br>
Are there any such plan even now? While I can understand that there
can be some laws to force a company to hold the data of citizens of
a country within its border, there isnt any law which can force
these companies to hold foreign data within a country's borders...
Or would any such act perceived to be too unfriendly an act by the
US gov?<br>
<br>
<br>
I am sure others may have other questions to ask these
companies.....<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
</body>
</html>