1、CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Law Enforcement Access to Overseas Data Under the CLOUD Act May 2, 2018 Law enforcement officials in the United States and abroad frequently seek access to electronic communications, such as emails and social m
2、edia posts, stored on servers and in data centers in foreign countries. Because the architecture of the internet allows technology companies to store data at a great distance from the physical location of their customers, electronic communications that could serve as evidence of a crime often are no
3、t housed in the same country where the crime occurred. This disconnect has caused both the United States and foreign governments to seek access to data stored outside their territorial jurisdictions. In the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act, Congress enacted one of the first signifi
4、cant changes in decades to U.S. law governing cross-border access by law enforcement to electronic communications held by private companies. U.S. Law Enforcements Ability to Obtain Data Overseas Passed as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, the CLOUD Act has two major components. Th