Google Data Privacy Fight Hinges on Cloud Storage Tech

An order that Alphabet's Google turn over customer data stored overseas relied more on the specific storage technology at play than on an outdated federal e-mail privacy law. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler of the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled April 19 that Google must turn over customer data stored overseas subject to a valid search warrant issued in June 2016 under the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2701. The ruling may not offer real clarity sought by companies that store large amounts of data in the cloud, such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.com, on whether they must comply with government demands for the release of consumer data stored outside the US. But it does offer some insight into how courts may parse the technological issues surrounding the storage of data and identification of the consumers tied to that data by focusing on the ability of the company to readily identify the citizenship of a particular user.