[simiones]

Well, with data residing in the USA, US three-letter agencies can just ask the data operators to give them the data. I'm sure the same is true of French three-letter agencies for data residing in France, or possibly even the whole EU.

BUT, it's much harder to US three-letter agencies to obtain access to data residing in France, or the other way around - that would require hacking, and that carries a much higher degree of difficulty and risk (not that I would ever imagine it doesn't still happen).