I am not familiar with the US law system, but in our country it would be normal, that for example my landlord has to go to court before he can search my house, even when he is the owner. And the warrant is not against the landlord, but against me.
So I disagree with your statement, at least in my country it would be not wasting anything ... but DOING THE RIGHT THING!
And I would really wonder, if in the US the landlord could just search your house, because he thinks that you might have stolen something of him -- with the argument, that he does not want to "waste anybodies time"!
I think the problem is that we have extensive precedent in the USA that warrants to search cloud data are properly presented to the cloud hosting provider, NOT the "owner" of the data -- in fact, the data owner is often prohibited from even knowing that the process is taking place.
Others have pointed out that this is a clear way in which cloud storage is fundamentally different from local storage, which one might not expect -- being able to be secure in one's papers, a fundamental right in the US, only pertains if the papers are physically located on your person or property.
I'm overextending here, but I think the physical analogy applies as well -- if the police want to search a rented storage locker, the search warrant is served to the storage company, not the lessee of the locker.
If in the US information is only secure, if in your own possession (not any trustee or similar), than cloud storage and any online service of vital documents is just impossible in the US.
If this is the case: I don't think, that many companies are aware of this. But that would render the worth of online services to void for many companies.
If you have information you want to keep private or secure, it's your responsibility to ensure that it private or secure. This means understanding the agreements you make when you store said data in certain locations.
> I don't think, that many companies are aware of this.
No, many companies are in fact aware of this. This is the reason there providers that do provide increased security and oversight as far as data access goes. Apple, Google, and Microsoft just happen to provide free email services that aren't that secure if you violate their T&C.
> than cloud storage and any online service of vital documents is just impossible in the US.
Yeah, if you think using a cloud service outside the US immediately makes you immune to these problems, you are the one who isn't aware of the situation.
> Yeah, if you think using a cloud service outside the US immediately makes you immune to these problems, you are the one who isn't aware of the situation.
If you read my statements carefully, I did not say that. But in my country there are different laws and I know that many cloud service providers do not have privacy holes as Hotmail has in their legal statements.
I also said, that I don't know how the law in the US is, but some statements here made the impression, that companies like MS could just do what they want.
So I disagree with your statement, at least in my country it would be not wasting anything ... but DOING THE RIGHT THING!
And I would really wonder, if in the US the landlord could just search your house, because he thinks that you might have stolen something of him -- with the argument, that he does not want to "waste anybodies time"!