Patriot Act, Privacy & Where the Information is

["Heather Morrison" <hmorrison@ola.bc.ca>]

One thing that baffles me about the Patriot Act and the potential
implications for individual privacy is the increasing tendency to offer
services that cross borders.

For example, if a non-U.S. library purchases services from a vendor which
involve maintaining information about non-American individuals on a server
in the U.S., does this mean that the Patriot Act applies?  Does the
jurisdiction specified in the contract matter?

Similarly, what if a U.S. library purchases services which involve keeping
information about individual Americans on a server outside the U.S.?

This is, of course, not to mention the very real possibility of a library
in country A purchasing servers from a vendor in country B, who hosts the
information on a server in country C.  These services might frequently
involve transmitting information across countries D,E, and F, and
occasionally through a satellite shared by countries G and H.

Has anyone addressed this issue?

just curious,

Heather Grace Morrison