HP would put up a fight for its customers' data if the US authorities came calling to access it, according to HP's privacy officer EMEA, Daniel Pradelles.
The US Patriot Act enables authorities in the US to seize data if they believe it is in the country's national security interests to do so. The act has recently been put in the spotlight, after former National Security Agency (NSA) and CIA contractor Edward Snowden leaked several documents detailing how the Prism programme collected information on email and internet usage.
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The documents also showed how technology giants including Apple, Facebook and Google may have helped the US government to access their systems via a "backdoor" or direct connection to their systems - a suggestion that the top tech firms vehemently deny.
But while Apple, Facebook and Yahoo have all revealed the number of data requests they received to comply with the US government's Prism programme, HP has said it is not involved in the project at all.
"For Prism, our statement is that we have not been involved at all. For Prism, we have got absolutely no requests, maybe because our business is fundamentally different from Facebook and Google," said Pradelles.
Pradelles went on to say that the US Patriot Act was designed for a legitimate reason; to protect against terrorism and crime.
"Even in the US, there are some legal processes to follow for the government before requesting access to customer data. HP's position is that we have never had any requests up to now, but if we were subject to a request, we would challenge it," he said.
HP's data privacy chief went on to state that it is the customer's responsibility to ensure that their data is housed in a specific location if needs be.
"If a customer has concerns about any government - not just the US government - accessing its data, we have to find an appropriate solution. Even in the US we have some customers who have business with the US government, army and marines and they have some special requirements for the data to only be in the US with enhanced security access controls," he said.
"If there is no special requirement from the customer [then UK customers' data could reside in another country]. The business is global by definition. Nowadays large companies like HP, IBM and Google have global networks but if we sign a contract with a company we have to be transparent [about where their data resides]," he added.
