EU wants to force companies around the world to disclose user data related to crimes

The European Union is now engaged in the preparation of special legal norms in order to be able to receive information from companies about their users, if they are criminals or are suspected of committing crimes. This is primarily about issuing information that is stored on servers outside the EU. Data on all kinds of offenders are disclosed in many cases and now, but only if the server with this information is located in the jurisdiction of the EU.

Earlier, EU officials said they planned to form legislation in such a way as to be able to obtain data on offenders from the 28 countries in the bloc. But now the point of view of European officials has changed, and they plan to expand the influence of this norm on countries anywhere in the world. About this agency Reuters reported sources familiar with the situation.

According to legislators, “digital boundaries” are now becoming an increasingly complex problem. In particular, because large companies work with clouds, various kinds of services, data of which is stored all over the world. Thus, information about any person, the client of such an organization, can be stored at all not in the country where this person lives, but on a server that is located in another part of the world. And it complicates the work of law enforcement agencies, since not every company will agree to give out information about their client, if they are stored in a different jurisdiction.
')
According to the authorities (and not only the EU), such measures are necessary to successfully combat crimes in the digital era. The companies themselves protect their customers and consider their data to be inviolable. The problems associated with this situation are also relevant for the United States, where tech-giants who develop software and hardware sometimes refuse to give out the data of their clients to law enforcement agencies. This happened, for example, with Apple, which refused to unlock the smartphone of the criminal who staged a carnage at the airport.

It seems that now the law enforcement authorities decided to get rid of the problem once and for all, changing the law so that the data of criminals or suspects could be obtained from any server in the world at any time. Of course, by official request with the provision of all documents. Microsoft, Apple, IBM have already said that the requirements of the authorities, if they are met, will undermine the trust of customers in their companies and cloud services.

According to representatives of the European Union, the current mechanisms for obtaining digital data from abroad are extremely slow and inefficient, which does not allow law enforcement officers to work at the proper speed. Representatives of the law should be faster than criminals, and if there are delays, then this with a high degree of probability means that the offender will leave punishment.

It is worth noting that the proposed changes in EU legislation are still under consideration. There is a draft bill that can be changed and modified. It may well be that the EU will need about two years to complete the changes and achieve the desired. The main difficulty is that European officials will have to coordinate their changes with representatives of other countries, for example, the United States. It is forbidden to issue the data of citizens to other countries, except for some cases. By the way, the situation is similar in Europe - here it is also forbidden to transfer citizens' data outside the EU.



The main task now is to find a compromise with the American authorities. If this happens, the digital boundaries for law enforcement officers may disappear and then information about the criminals or suspects will be given out by any companies storing it on their servers.

Representatives of not only the EU, but also other countries believe that legislation should be developed and changed in accordance with changes in global trends, including technological ones. Well, since technologies are developing very rapidly, now is the time to agree on all the changes and change the legislation accordingly. If technology companies do not want to change something, they will have to be forced; for this, all the legislative mechanisms are in place.

By the way, since the spring of this year, a new version of the law on the protection of personal information of the General Data Protection Regulation comes into force in the European Union. These rules apply to any company where there is at least one user from the European Union. Such a company can be made to remove all information about the user, including behavioral, if the user himself wants. That is, the company will simply have to “forget” the person if he so desires.