Live webcast: Patriot Act and the myth of a secure European cloud

By | June 17, 2011, 2:06pm PDT

Summary: Live webcast: Understanding the reach of the USA PATRIOT Act in Europe and further afield. Set your reminders for 30th June 2011.

Bookmark the 30th June, ladies and gentlemen, as I formally invite you to join ZDNet in a live webcast detailing the effects of the United States’ counter-terrorism laws on Europe’s cloud infrastructure and further afield.

My research focused on the the effect that the USA PATRIOT Act has on businesses, industries and universities outside of the United States, primarily in Europe. It took just shy of a year to research and write (and legalese), and is well over 8,000 words spread across five posts.

It’s a great deal to take in — I will grant you that.

So, in the hope that this work can be as available to as many as possible, join both myself and David Gewirtz, ZDNet’s Government columnist, in a live webcast.

Thursday 30th June 2011 – 9 am PT12 pm ET4pm GMT

If you’re already registered on ZDNet, then it’s only a click away. If not, you can quickly sign up in a matter of seconds.

Whether you are a chief officer, a university official, a business or even an ordinary citizen such as myself, this webcast is for you.

The United States is home to the world’s largest technology companies — like Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Offering cloud services from simple storage to complex web applications, vast quantities of data enter and leave the U.S. each day.

But data held in European datacenters, protected by strict EU data laws, may still be vulnerable to government inspection by U.S. authorities.

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Topics

Zack Whittaker, a criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, Canterbury, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

Disclosure

Zack Whittaker

I worked briefly with Microsoft UK in 2006 but no longer have any connection with the company. Regardless, I remain impartial and unbiased in my views.

I don't hold any stock or shares, investments or industrial secrets in any company, but have signed confidentiality agreements with a number of UK and U.S. organisations, whose names I am not at liberty to disclose.

I was involved with Kent Union, the University of Kent's student union, undertaking voluntary, non-salaried, elected positions between early 2009 and mid-2010.

No other company, body, government department, non-governmental organisation or third sector organisation employs me or pays me a salary in any capacity whatsoever.

As a freelance journalist, whenever expenses are given and taken by a company that is not CBS Interactive, these will be disclosed in each relevant post to ensure transparency.

I currently work with a UK law enforcement unit, but this is an entirely separate position which bears no connection to other work.

(Updated: 23rd October 2011)

Biography

Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, UK, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

After studying criminology at university, though still in his early-20's, he has already had a series unconventional work and voluntary positions. He has worked with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (which he suffers from), has given lectures on the nature of disabilities in the public community, and occasionally ends up speaking on television and radio discussing the events of the day.

He first had academic work published at the age of 22, then still an undergraduate, and has been cited by a wide range of publications: from the Huffington Post, Business Insider, AllThingsDigital, The Atlantic Wire and CBS News.

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RE: Live webcast: Patriot Act and the myth of a secure European cloud
StevenB77 31st Oct
All the articles written by this writer seems to have the same undertone and it is kind of repetitive. I was just reading an article about fax to email and then clicked a link and ended up here only to find an article that is similar to what I read by this same writer but the other article had a different title. Freshness is good!
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Cloud has nothing to do with it
terry flores 18th Jun
FBI agents have been able to walk into US offices of companies like *** with a National Security Letter and pull information out of hosted customer databases in Germany and France for years. Because of the secrecy restrictions in such letters, the customer never even knows it happened.
All the articles written by this writer seems to have the same undertone and it is kind of repetitive. I was just reading an article about fax to email and then clicked a link and ended up here only to find an article that is similar to what I read by this same writer but the other article had a different title. Freshness is good!

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