US, UK Signed First Ever Bilateral CLOUD Act Data Sharing Agreement

The United states and the U.k. have signed what they call a "landmark" agreement that will enable them to demand electronic data directly from the tech companies based in the other state bypassing local legal barriers. The first international agreement under the US CLOUD Human action (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data) comes along with a renewed push to create back doors in the encrypted communications apps.

The information sharing understanding was signed past the US Attorney General William P Barr and United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland Home Secretarial assistant Priti Patel last dark. "This agreement volition enhance the ability of the United states of america and the Britain to fight serious crime - including terrorism, transnational organized criminal offense, and child exploitation - by allowing more efficient and effective access to data needed for quick-moving investigations," Barr said.

"But by addressing the problem of timely access to electronic evidence of crime committed in one country that is stored in another, tin we hope to keep pace with twenty-beginning century threats. This agreement will make the citizens of both countries safer, while at the same time assuring robust protections for privacy and civil liberties." - Barr

Patel added that "terrorists and paedophiles continue to exploit the cyberspace to spread their letters of hate, plan attacks on our citizens and target the almost vulnerable. As Dwelling house Secretary I am determined to do everything in my power to stop them."

"This celebrated agreement will dramatically speed up investigations, allowing our law enforcement agencies to protect the public. This is only ane example of the indelible security partnership we take with the U.s. and I look forward to continuing to work with them and global partners to tackle these heinous crimes." - Patel

What this new CLOUD Act bilateral information sharing agreement means

While at that place was already a process in place (MLAT or the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) that enabled the UK and Usa to demand access to content stored in or by the tech companies in the other country, it took a lot of time and legal barriers. The new data sharing agreement will enable United kingdom authorities to skip the US legal procedure and reach out directly to tech companies like Facebook and Google in cases of serious crimes similar terrorism and child sexual abuse after having the advisable court dominance.

The controversial Cloud Act was passed in March, 2018. Supporters argued that the MLAT is no longer sustainable every bit it depends on one country abiding past some other country's court arrangement. For all the local crimes, the proponents argue, foreign countries cannot exist brought in or fifty-fifty pushed to deliver data on time. The opponents had opposed the beak for its overreaching clauses, as the Human activity enables an attorney general to unilaterally enter into agreements with strange countries, bypassing court protections.

"The electric current legal assistance process tin take up to 2 years, simply the Agreement will reduce this time period considerably, while protecting privacy and enhancing civil liberties," the DOJ'southward press released issued late last night reads. The press release added that the "United States will have reciprocal admission, under a U.Due south. courtroom order, to data from Great britain communication service providers."

All requests for access to information will be subject to independent judicial authorization or oversight.

The agreement will go into issue after being approved by lawmakers on both sides.

Encrypted data remains safe from this agreement, simply governments renew their push to become rid of end-to-stop encryption

Since the contents of end-to-end encrypted messages remain out of reach, the governments are also pushing for having admission to this data through back doors. The agreement has strengthened this years-long demand of intelligence agencies.

Last dark, AG Barr along with officials from the UK and Australia also published an open letter demanding this backdoor admission into Facebook's products. The letter urges Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg not to expand its encryption efforts (Facebook had appear in summertime to exist more privacy-focused through encrypted communications) without providing police force enforcement access to these communications to "protect the public, particularly child users."

LEAs have long used the child abuse cases to button the narrative towards insecure communications that have a legal backdoor congenital into them. As activists and tech experts accept long argued and leaks from within the intelligence agencies have proved, any backdoor or vulnerability that is created for exclusive government use e'er finds its fashion to the criminals, inherently making communications insecure.

Facebook, in its response, has said that "End-to-end encryption already protects the messages of over a billion people every day."

"Nosotros strongly oppose government attempts to build back doors because they would undermine the privacy and security of people everywhere."

Having over 1.v billion users, WhatsApp remains the well-nigh used messaging app that offers end-to-terminate encrypted communications past default. With the company creating a back door for the US government and its allies, activists warn that it will be destroying the security and privacy of billions of its users worldwide.