THE EUROPEAN UNION V. THE PATRIOT ACT: DO U.S. CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS VIOLATE E.U. CIVIL RIGHTS?
Some European political leaders suspect that United States cloud computing companies with operations in Europe are violating the civil rights of E.U. citizens. The violations, they say, are triggered by data requests from U.S. law enforcement agencies (“LEAs”) under the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act (“the Patriot Act”). Concerns about these alleged Patriot Act abuses have reached the point where certain E.U. leaders have proposed restrictions on U.S. cloud providers.