Given the extent to which large multinationals can and do fiddle the accounting to end up recording profits in the most advantageous tax jurisdictions, it strikes me as somewhat significant that they don't do the same over privacy issues.
Would it be technically or legally impossible to partition data between different privacy regimes? I realise there isn't a pressing consumer awareness of the need, and hence cost, but it does bother me a little that "my" cloud data is controlled by the nationality of the service, rather than my own.
The matter is hugely complicated with CDNs, multinational infrastructure, etc, but there's some unease about ceding control to a legal system in which I have very no or little power to effect change. Especially one which has a taste of the power which modern data-vacuuming can provide, and seems unlikely to give it up.
What you just described is why there is an increasing need for a global government. When companies span continents, they can pick and choose which laws in what countries suit them best, and the citizens of every other country the company inhabits are powerless to stop it.
No. Global government is not a logical requirement to combat these behaviours. For example, enforced transparency and regulation with harsh punishments (perhaps based on agreements between nations) could effect the same, without the horrible risks of centralizing power.
Would it be technically or legally impossible to partition data between different privacy regimes? I realise there isn't a pressing consumer awareness of the need, and hence cost, but it does bother me a little that "my" cloud data is controlled by the nationality of the service, rather than my own.
The matter is hugely complicated with CDNs, multinational infrastructure, etc, but there's some unease about ceding control to a legal system in which I have very no or little power to effect change. Especially one which has a taste of the power which modern data-vacuuming can provide, and seems unlikely to give it up.