I have stated for years that US government access to data in the cloud under the US Patriot Act is no different from what foreign governments can access under their local laws. This was based on my experience practicing law in Europe as global privacy counsel for Barclays and as the head of privacy for Barclays Wealth.

Now, an excellent article by Christopher Wolfand Winston Maxwell from Hogan Lovells lays out this argument with the research to back it up.

While I have several issues, personally, with the US Patriot Act, ECPA and similar laws, it’s always bothered me when other countries cite the US Patriot Act as a concern for allowing data to be transferred to the US, when in fact their own laws allow similar access- sometimes with less protections, even in the EU.