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The Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on Access to Electronic Data for the Purpose of Combating Serious Crime (“Data Access Agreement” or “Agreement”) entered into force today Clarifying the Agreement on Lawful Overseas Use of Data (Cloud) Act, a law enacted by Congress in 2018, and will be the first agreement of its kind, allowing investigators in each country to have better access to data critical to combating serious crime. in a manner that is consistent with privacy and civil liberties standards.
Under a data access agreement, service providers in one country can respond to qualified, lawful orders for electronic data issued by another country, without fear of restrictions on cross-border disclosures. The Data Access Agreement promotes more timely and efficient access to electronic data required in expedited investigations through the use of orders covered by the Agreement. This will greatly enhance the ability of the United States and the United Kingdom to prevent, detect, investigate, and prosecute serious crimes, including terrorism, transnational organized crime, and child exploitation.
The Data Access Agreement sets forth numerous requirements that the U.S. or must be met for the UK authorities to enforce the agreement. For example, orders submitted by US authorities must not target individuals located in the UK and must relate to a serious crime. Similarly, warrants submitted by UK authorities must not target US persons or persons located in the United States and must relate to a serious crime. US and UK authorities must also comply with agreed requirements, limitations and conditions when receiving and using data obtained under a data access agreement.
The United States and the United Kingdom have designated designated authorities responsible for implementing data access agreements for each country. For the United States, the Designated Authority is the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) and for the United Kingdom it is the Investigative Powers Unit of the UK Home Office.
Among its various functions as a US Designated Authority, the OIA has created a cloud team to review and certify contract-compliant orders on behalf of federal, state, local and territorial authorities located in the United States, transmitting the certified orders directly to the UK service. Providers, and arranges for the return of responsive data to requesting authorities.
For more information about the Cloud Act, the Data Access Agreement, and the OIA, please visit: https://www.justice.gov/cloudact and https://www.justice.gov/criminal-oia.
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