| "You run this website, the US govt. comes knocking at your door looking for records - what do you do? Thought so." I'm not sure what you're referring to in "this website", but I can tell you that jurisdictional arbitrage, and being able to protect my customers data in exactly this situation is something I spend a lot of time thinking about. Of course, nobody wants to fight a powerful government, so a better strategy is to make it such that the powerful government never comes knocking on your door, or you don't have any useful information for that powerful government, or your site infrastructure is in the jurisdiction of a government that has no interest in rolling over to that powerful government, like say, singapore. The US government can try to swing its weight around in singapore and will likely be told to go pound sand. And if the singapore government agrees with the US government, then what you hand over may not contain any sensitive client information (because you don't keep sensitive client information when you don't have to. If you have to, it is a different matter.) I think every one of us working on web services should think long and hard about how we're going to deal with the reality that the US government, without cover of law, regularly demands information (using the PATRIOT act) that it doesn't have the legal right to, and regularly censors (the torrent site takedowns, etc.) content providers who have never even been charged, let alone convicted of violating the law. You don't want your business shut down, that's true. (also a reason not to domicile your business in the USA, or keep your banking there.) These are issues you should think about before, or early, in the period of starting your business. |