CLOUD Act

The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act or CLOUD Act ( ) is a United States federal law enacted in 2018 by the passing of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, PL 115–141, Division V. The CLOUD Act primarily amends the Stored Communications Act (SCA) of 1986 to allow federal law enforcement to compel U.S.-based technology companies via warrant or subpoena to provide requested data stored on servers regardless of whether the data are stored in the U.S. or on foreign soil.

The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act or CLOUD Act ( ) is a United States federal law enacted in 2018 by the passing of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, PL 115–141, Division V. The CLOUD Act primarily amends the Stored Communications Act (SCA) of 1986 to allow federal law enforcement to compel U.S.-based technology companies via warrant or subpoena to provide requested data stored on servers regardless of whether the data are stored in the U.S. or on foreign soil. ==Background== The CLOUD Act was introduced following difficulties that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had with obtaining remote data through service providers through SCA warrants, as the SCA was written before cloud computing was a viable technology. The situation was highlighted from a 2013 drug trafficking investigation, during which the FBI issued an SCA warrant for emails that a U.S. citizen had stored on one of Microsoft's remote servers in Ireland, which Microsoft refused to provide. This legal challenge led to the Supreme Court in Microsoft Corp. v. United States. The FBI contended that Microsoft had full control of the data and should be compelled to turn it over in response to the warrant, but Microsoft argued that the SCA did not cover data stored outside the United States. The challenge recognized that while the FBI could request a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) to aid in data discovery during cross-border law enforcement, the process to acquire a new MLAT if one is not in place, or to process a request through an existing MLAT, can be slow and impede law enforcement efforts. Congress, primarily led by Senator Orrin Hatch, had attempted to create legislation prior to the CLOUD Act to amend the SCA with the concerns of Microsoft and other technology companies with respect to foreign privacy rights. The Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad Act (LEADS Act) in 2015 and the International Communications Privacy Act (ICPA) in 2017 were both previous bills intended to amend the SCA but which failed to gain passage. ==Passage and aftermath== After being introduced in the 115th United States Congress as H.R.4943, the act was included as a section of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 ( ), an omnibus spending bill, which passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law, P.L. 115–141, on March 23, 2018. On April 17, 2018, the Supreme Court, based on concurring briefs submitted by the Department of Justice, vacated the Microsoft Corp. v. United States and remanded it back to lower court to do the same, as the Department of Justice was able to secure a new warrant under the CLOUD Act and was no longer pursuing the initial warrant, rendering the case moot. ==References== ==Further reading== ==External links== 18 U.S. Code § 2713 (Stored Communications Act) CLOUD Act as amended (USLM/details) in the GPO Statute Compilations collection CLOUD Act as enacted (PDF/details) in the US Statutes at Large

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