Data Sharing

The United States and Canada have entered into formal negotiations for a bilateral agreement under the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act, to enhance the existing robust law enforcement cooperation between the two allies. The CLOUD Act was enacted in 2018 to streamline access to electronic information held by providers that is critical to investigations of serious crime, including terrorism, while maintaining strong protections for the rule of law, privacy, and civil liberties. The act creates a new paradigm: an efficient, privacy and civil liberties-protective approach to ensure effective access to electronic information through executive agreements between the United States and trusted foreign partners. Pursuant to such agreements, legal barriers prohibiting service providers subject to U.S. laws from responding to lawful orders to disclose electronic evidence that are issued by the other party will be lifted, and reciprocal access will be permitted under the laws of the trusted foreign partner.