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Fastmail offers EU data region

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Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#181
post #31
post #9

EU data regions are a reflexive action by companies that try to hold on to their EU customers (and more and more are leaving, surprisingly the larger ones seem to be leading here). Realize that as long as you are still hosted on US owned infrastructure or that if there are US (or: five-eyes) owned companies anywhere in the stack your data can still be forcibly pulled and often without you being aware that this happen…

> your data can still be forcibly pulled and often without you being aware that this happened as a german i feel the urge to point out that this technically also applies to european companies... With more hurdles for the US, but still technically applicable

europeans like it more when just european governments are doing it

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#182
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just stops shy of asking Australian tech companies, like Fastmail, to build backdoors into their products so that the government can "legally access" data from them It stops just short of saying that you must do this preemptively , but is pretty clear that you must do it if they ask you to.

Why do I never hear about this ‘feature’ from American products like gmail which 99% of the HN audience is using? Isn’t USA a member of Five Eyes? I admit it is a concern, as a Fastmail user, but this discussion only seems to happen on the Fastmail threads, yet no one bats an eye if one is suggested to open a gmail account like everybody else.

Because everybody on HN is most likely aware that Google is an American company and that by using them you pretty much can assume that your data can be compromised without your knowledge or recourse. Post Snowden there should be zero doubt about that. Fastmail is worthy of scrutiny because people might believe that they are materially different when in practice they probably are not.

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which of those two leaders were elected by the people?

I'm not sure what that's supposed to imply because if Ursula von der Leyen manages to be less corrupt without being elected by the people that has some uncharitable consequences for the quality of the American electorate, I think HL Mencken had something to say on this

Technically, the US president is also not elected by the people but by the electors, which in many ways is comparable to how the EU elected the EU Commission President.

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#184
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile the President sits in the Oval Office and says, in a televised interview, with absolutely no shame, that all of his kids and family are insider trading, all the time.

Meanwhile in Germany insider trading is completely legal for politicians. Well, not insider trading - but it's definition supposedly doesn't extend beyond internal business information. (At least that's what people keep telling me, im not a lawyer)

Insider trading is it course not legal for politicians in Germany, as you could have found out without being a lawyer. That being said, transparency/reporting duties for members of parliament/ministers can and should definitely be improved.

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#185
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly Van Der Leyen. I suggest you show up for next EU election if you don't like the option.

How should EU citizens vote at that next election if they are unhappy with von der Leyen's actions as President of the European Commission in order to remove her if enough other voters agree?

They should vote for parties that are not organized in the EPP (European people's party). The exact party options depend on the country you're voting in.

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#186
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How should EU citizens vote at that next election if they are unhappy with von der Leyen's actions as President of the European Commission in order to remove her if enough other voters agree?

They should vote for parties that are not organized in the EPP (European people's party). The exact party options depend on the country you're voting in.

And what would happen next to ensure that von der Leyen was removed from office?

It is worth remembering at this point how von der Leyen first became Commission President. She was controversially nominated by the European Council - who are not directly elected representatives within the EU system - deviating from the spitzenkandidat convention in a way that surprised and angered many MEPs - who are. Her own national government (Germany) did not support her in the Council voting because one of the parties in the governing coalition opposed her. She was eventually confirmed by a narrow majority in a secret ballot of the European Parliament from which little can therefore be determined about who did or didn't vote for her except that quite a lot of MEPs who were expected to support her candidacy based on public statements did not in fact do so in the secret vote.

So she was essentially proposed by a group of people who aren't directly elected at EU level and in some cases aren't even directly elected by the nations they represent - in violation of the normal convention expected by the only people who are directly elected at EU level - and was then narrowly confirmed by that directly elected group only in a secret ballot from which the vote of each individual representative was not recorded and there is therefore no possibility for their own electorates to hold those representatives to account personally for how they voted. Given that we are talking about the most influential political post in the EU this is not exactly a powerful demonstration of democratic legitimacy and a clear popular mandate no matter how you look at it.

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#187
post #9

EU data regions are a reflexive action by companies that try to hold on to their EU customers (and more and more are leaving, surprisingly the larger ones seem to be leading here). Realize that as long as you are still hosted on US owned infrastructure or that if there are US (or: five-eyes) owned companies anywhere in the stack your data can still be forcibly pulled and often without you being aware that this happen…

What about the 9-eyes and the 14-eyes?

All the added eyes are European (Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway; Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Sweden)

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#188
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just stops shy of asking Australian tech companies, like Fastmail, to build backdoors into their products so that the government can "legally access" data from them It stops just short of saying that you must do this preemptively , but is pretty clear that you must do it if they ask you to.

Why do I never hear about this ‘feature’ from American products like gmail which 99% of the HN audience is using? Isn’t USA a member of Five Eyes? I admit it is a concern, as a Fastmail user, but this discussion only seems to happen on the Fastmail threads, yet no one bats an eye if one is suggested to open a gmail account like everybody else.

Because it's a criteria for choosing Fastmail.

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true but the EU still has a - mostly - functioning legal system. See 'Schrems' and other lawsuits that came out as they should have.

Take a look at how they play with regards to chat control. The EU is just the same corrupt BS like D.C., only with a lot more virtue signaling.

What you do is called "black-and-white thinking" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_(psychology)?useskin...

Re: Fastmail offers EU data region

#190

Posted on the previous submission for this: it’s a good start, but from the article: If what you need is a guarantee that your data remains only in the EU, we don’t have that, and we’d rather tell you directly than let you assume otherwise.

Wow they completely missed the ball on why people want reassurances that their data stays in the EU

Anyone who cares about security won't accept "reassurance" anyway. They would use end to end encryption like PGP or similar and not worry about the middlemen.
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