By Zack Whittaker for Between the Lines |
Some people volunteer at shelters. Some people play video games. Some work tirelessly for 80 hours a week for the sake of their startup.
Some destroy the global trust in the US technology industry.
In a single two-hour courtroom session on Thursday morning — just in time for lunch — US District Judge Loretta Preska ruled on a case that has massive global implications for US technology giants.
It’s not like there was much left in the wake of the Edward Snowden disclosures, which threw nine Silicon Valley giants under the global surveillance bus more than a year ago. But we were coming to a point where our collective trust levels in these companies, which are fighting for their right to disclose government data request figures, were slowly rising — at least in the US.
To the outside world, lack of trust was still a big issue. Particularly for Europe. As the closest continental friend to the US, there was a lot of work that needed to be done.
But as relations were beginning to improve, the US judiciary decided that, for the purposes of its own law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the world was its oyster and data stored outside of its jurisdiction was fair game.