The CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use
of Data Act) contains a new legal framework for government
access to emails and other data stored abroad.
The legislation aims at establishing procedures to protect
public safety and to combat serious criminal offenses in order to
enable domestic authorities taking access to data even if stored on
servers abroad.
To this end, the CLOUD Act provides for the conclusion of
bilateral executive agreements with other qualifying foreign
governments for cooperation in the event of requests for data
access. Such an agreement with a government would then not only
allow U.S. authorities, within the agreed framework, to access data
stored abroad with the involvement of local authorities, but,
conversely, also the authorities of that state to access data in
the USA. Court orders will not be required.
