Co-founder and CEO of systems integrator Cloudreach Pontus Noren has warned firms that the US government is capable of taking data it deems important to its security, without needing to rely on the Patriot Act.
Many firms are wary of storing critical data with cloud firms that operate data centres in the US because of the Act, which enables the authorities there to sieze data if they think it's in the country's national security interests to do so.
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"I don't think that the US government is trying to spy with the Patriot Act. If it really wants your data, it's going to get it," Noren told Computing recently. "It doesn't matter where you keep it, they'll find it and force you to give it up.
"They monitor communications, they have sophisticated technology, they can get the data they want."
He added that although many UK firms feel safer because their data is held in European data centres, this is a false sense of security.
"I can't see the US government saying ‘Oh, the data's not here, [let's give up]'."
Noren said that some cloud providers might readily hand over customer data to a government, while others "might try to fight it a bit more".
He added that "Google is very transparent about the requests for data they get, including how many, from whom, and if they're obliged to respond".
