Few people know about it.
Few Swedish companies and organizations are aware that a new US law was signed in March 2018. The new law – the CLOUD Act – will affect all Swedish companies and their information stored on US cloud services. Therefore, the Swedish cloud service Storegate now offers a relocation grant to Swedish companies that want to move their files home to a Swedish cloud, under Swedish law.
Swedish companies and organizations are currently preparing for the new, stricter EU legislation on the handling of personal data (GDPR), which comes into force on 25 May. However, there are other aspects that are at least as important to consider when a company chooses a cloud service to store, share and collaborate on company files.
On March 23, a new US law, the CLOUD Act (Clarifying Overseas Use of Data), came into force, which means that US authorities must be given access to data stored on US cloud services, even if it is stored abroad, and that US cloud services cannot refuse to disclose such data.
To comply with the GDPR, US cloud services have been forced to offer EU storage to Swedish companies. With the CLOUD Act, this means that US legislation applies to data stored with a US cloud service even if it is within the EU and it can be very costly for a Swedish company to ignore these risks.
An example of how Swedish actors using foreign cloud services are forced to deal with this is Karolinska Institutet, which warns its users (researchers, employees and partners) about the type of information that may not be stored in the American cloud service Box. The following can be read on KI’s website:
“What files should I not put in KI Box?”
“Confidential/protectable information, such as information that may lead to patents, must not be stored in KI Box as the agreements do not contain any protection against the application of another country’s legislation. Box cannot contract away the US legislation in this regard. In general, no personal data relating to research subjects should be stored in KI Box, as it is usually regarded as information worthy of protection.”
Storegate helps companies move home
Storegate now wants to help Swedish companies that decide to move their business-critical information home to Swedish storage, under Swedish law at Storegate.se.
– “We offer our services free of charge for six months to companies that choose to move their files home. We call it a moving allowance, says Storegate’s CEO Matz Karlsson, and is there to cover any notice period from the foreign cloud service and thus make the change more cost-effective. We will also help those companies that want support in moving their files, Matz Karlsson concludes.
For more information, please contact:
Matz Karlsson, CEO, Storegate AB,
matz.karlsson[at]storegate.com
