What is the Cloud Act?

An American law passed in 2018, whose full name is the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act. Behind the jargon, one simple idea: American authorities can demand from an American company the data it holds, wherever its servers are located. A datacenter in Paris or Frankfurt changes nothing. What matters is the company’s nationality, not the machine’s address.

Why does this concern you? Because your emails, your photos and your documents probably live with Google, Apple or Microsoft. Three American companies. Even when they promise European hosting, the Cloud Act applies. The contract says Europe, the law says Washington.

This law covers judicial requests: it does not mean an agent reads your emails every morning. But it creates a lasting imbalance, because your data answers to a legal system you have no say in. It’s the legal knot at the center of personal digital sovereignty, which walks through the full scenario.

Where it plays out: chapter 6 of the book gets your files off American servers, and the Cloud and storage category compares European and encrypted alternatives.