

Ask HN: Does US law apply to AWS data-centers located outside USA?  - yeleti


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arshsingh
Yes, mozilla mentioned this in a blog post when someone here on HN pointed
that they should move persona out of the U.S. Being a U.S. company they have
to follow the U.S. law regardless of their servers' location.

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andyjohnson0
I believe this is the relevant thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5854813](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5854813)

Its a bit short on specifics though. I'd like to know which laws give the US
access to data held on servers that are physically outside its jurisdiction.
What happens when they are in conflict with local laws (e.g. EU privacy laws)?
I though there were international agreements covering this.

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ratsbane
I wonder if US laws would apply to foreign corporations entirely owned by US
corporations? E.g., if Amazon set up an Irish corporation to own and manage a
data center in Ireland, even though Amazon still exercised control, wouldn't
that data center be outside the scope of US law?

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rmah
According to US law, US law applies to any company with a presence in the US
or that does business with US companies or serves US customers. Yes, that
means pretty much every major corporation in the entire world.

How effective the US gov can enforce its laws depends on how much leverage the
US gov can apply against the specific company. For example, it can bar other
US companies from interacting with them. It can potentially seize assets. Or
it can arrest company officers if they happen to enter US jurisdiction. All
these have occurred in the past.

~~~
andyjohnson0
What if there is a conflict between US law and the law of the country in which
the owned corporation operates?

To take @ratsbane's example, Amazon Data Services Ireland is the Irish company
that manages the data centre that currently comprises the AWS EU West region.
It does no business in the US, but its parent company (Amazon.com Inc) does.
Amazon Data Services Ireland are subject to Irish and EU laws relating to
privacy and data protection. They can't just ship personal/commercial data out
of the UK to the US as this would breach local laws. If the US govt demands
that Amazon Inc provide it with data that is located in Dublin, what do Amazon
Inc _actually do_? Does US law really mandate that Amazon Inc must force its
subsidiary to break local laws?

 _" It can potentially seize assets. Or it can arrest company officers if they
happen to enter US jurisdiction."_

I know this has happened with on-line gaming companies - but that is a
situation where the foreign company is doing something that the UK considers
to be illegal. We're talking about the scope of laws relating to non-US
companies engaged in lawful activities.

I suspect that the reach of the US government in these situations actually
depends on international agreements with other nations (or groups, like the
EU) and not US domestic law.

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testerPen911
Ireland is not in the UK. Just to point that out mr andyjohnson05.

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devb0x
TOS mention jurisdiction? Im sure its US soil somewhere

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gesman
Depends on how much money is at stake :)

