[quote]The United States’ global trade representative has strongly criticised a perceived preference on the part of large Australian organisations for hosting their data on-shore in Australia, claiming it created a significant trade barrier for US technology firms and was based on a misinterpretation of the US Patriot Act.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), recently released “The 2012 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE),” that surveys significant foreign barriers to US exports. The issue of cloud computing was a major barrier, it was felt.
A number of US companies had expressed concerns that various departments in the Australian Government, namely, the Department of Defence, The National Archives of Australia, the Department of Finance and Deregulation, the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) and the State of Victoria’s Privacy Commissioner had been sending negative messages about cloud providers based outside the country, implying that “hosting data overseas, including in the United States, by definition entails greater risk and unduly exposes consumers to their data being scrutinised by foreign governments”.
The cloud issue is not a new one. In August 2011, the global head of CSC’s cloud business, Siki Giunta who was present in Australia to launch BizCloud commented that she felt that there was a lack of collaboration between the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industry and the Government in Australia. However, Glenn Archer, First Assistant Secretary at AGIMO, said the AGIMO had, in fact, been working very closely with industry for many months through the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) Cloud Task Force.
Recently, Acting Victorian Privacy Commissioner Anthony Bendall highlighted some of the privacy concerns with cloud computing, particularly in its use by the local government. He said the main problems were the lack of control over stored data and privacy, in overseas cloud service providers. He felt that data security; accountability for data breach; and differing privacy laws were concerns that needed to be addressed, when considering storing information and data, especially relating to the government, in a cloud.
On the issue of privacy concerns, the report stated that there seemed to be a misinterpretation of the applicable US law including the US Patriot Act and regulatory requirements. In November last year, draft legislation had been introduced in Parliament, banning the overseas storing of Australian electronic health records. The report claimed this to be a significant trade barrier for US information technology companies with data centres in the US and other countries. US industry sources have appealed asking for a risk-based approach to ensure the security of sensitive data as against a geographical one.
In the telecom section, the report stated that the structure of the National Broadband Network Company, NBN Co, (responsible for implementing wholesale broadband services in Australia) could enhance non-discriminatory access to network services for overseas companies including US companies, as the NBN would not compete in retail markets. The United States expressed concern that foreign equity limits in Telstra, were still capped at 35 percent, and the individual foreign investors could own only up to 5 per cent of the company. The report stated that the US Government would monitor the development of the NBN to ensure that competitors obtained fair access to services and customers.
opinion/analysis
This is pretty much what you’d expect from the US Government — it’s looking out for its own interests and trying to push Australia to conform with it. However, I don’t view the US Trade Representative’s views as legitimate, when examined from an Australian perspective. US cloud computing companies such as Salesforce.com, Rackspace, Amazon and Google have committed very little infrastructure to the Australian market, and analysis after analysis has warned of the data security dangers of storing sensitive data in jurisdictions covered by US legislation, which can, at times, allow the US Government unprecedented access to private data.
I would hope that Australia’s large organisations, and our governments, ignore this criticism from the US. Cloud computing companies are completely free to build infrastructure in Australia, and it’s not a trade barrier when some organisations simply don’t want to buy your products because of some portions of your government’s legislation. In fact, it’s probably true that Australian companies view the Patriot Act as a trade barrier to dealing with US companies. Perhaps Australia’s own trade representative should lobby to have it repealed?[/quote]
Source: [url]http://delimiter.com.au/2012/04/13/us-slams-australias-on-shore-cloud-fixation/[/url]
I'm not really much of an IT person, what exactly has Australia done to piss off the US and how it is hindering trade?
So in a nutshell the US wants the Aussies to build their cloud infrastructure in the land of the free so they're able to snoop on the data?
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;35560137]I'm not really much of an IT person, what exactly has Australia done to piss off the US and how it is hindering trade?[/QUOTE]
Australian organizations host their data in Australia and this pisses America off because then Australia could fuck with our data (censorship etc), so really America wants to take the data fucking back to America.
Fuck off. Why would you even need to look at the websites listed?
Yeah ok USA, of course we will trust you with our data on the internet.
I don't see the issue at all, I'm totally ok with our network staying in the hands of Australian investors.
Yeah this is stupid
They want it because they can't control the internet if we have it.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;35560137]I'm not really much of an IT person, what exactly has Australia done to piss off the US and how it is hindering trade?[/QUOTE]
Austrialian government agencies automatically preferring autralian hosting solutions and cloud plans to non australian ones. Basically they claim them doing this creates issues with free trade and makes australian companies follow suit.
surely if you're a large organisation in australia and hosting for your large amounts of data is available locally and is easy to set up, why would you bother to set it up in the US instead?
yes america please force us to host our cloud services in america because we really want to slow down our connection to these servers even more
[QUOTE=duno;35560191]Australian organizations host their data in Australia and this pisses America off because then Australia could fuck with our data (censorship etc), so really America wants to take the data fucking back to America.[/QUOTE]
I doubt the Australian government would censor Australian patients health records, and I'm not sure why the US would be concerned over that.
American just wants to fuck our internets, by using SOPA, PIPA and all the other bullshit censors they pull out.
i will personally pay cash money to ensure these things stay in australia because the less control the US has over the rest of the world, the better imo
Wait, what.
America is bitching that the Australian government is hosting its' data on Australian servers?
That doesn't even have anything to do with the free market.
Fuck off America this is ours.
AUSTRALIA HOW DARE YOU STORE YOUR DATA IN AUSTRALIA AND NOT IN THE LAND OF THE FREE
DON'T YOU KNOW WE HAVE A GREAT TRACK RECORD FOR NOT TRYING TO MESS WITH PEOPLE'S DATA AND THE INTERNET
[QUOTE=Reds;35564727]AUSTRALIA HOW DARE YOU STORE YOUR DATA IN AUSTRALIA AND NOT IN THE LAND OF THE FREE
DON'T YOU KNOW WE HAVE A GREAT TRACK RECORD FOR NOT TRYING TO MESS WITH PEOPLE'S DATA AND THE INTERNET[/QUOTE]
Actually they don't, there's just a few corrupt nutjobs in the U.S congress right now that are sponsoring potential bills to pass because the corporations that want them passed basically fund their whole re-election campaign. But it's funny that you criticize the U.S for online censorship laws (which they don't have any) when you have a goddamn ISP based internet blacklist like china, limited bandwidth, and a government that bans violent games.
I'm sure you love being protected from yourself
[QUOTE=Stick it in her pooper;35565368]Actually they don't, there's just a few corrupt nutjobs in the U.S congress right now that are sponsoring potential bills to pass because the corporations that want them passed basically fund their whole re-election campaign. But it's funny that you criticize the U.S for online censorship laws (which they don't have any) when you have a goddamn ISP based internet blacklist like china, limited bandwidth, and a government that bans violent games.
I'm sure you love being protected from yourself[/QUOTE]
The bills that are trying to be passed in the U.S. are literally giving power to companies. What is a company's aim? To make money. No doubt they will abuse that power. The Australian filtering system has a good track record as far as i know, and actually has defined rules, instead of easy to manipulate wording.
[QUOTE=Australian Government Website]
Refused Classification (RC) content is defined under the National Classification Scheme. Such material includes child sexual abuse imagery, bestiality, sexual violence, detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use and/or material that advocates the doing of a terrorist act.
[/QUOTE]
Source: [url]http://www.dbcde.gov.au/funding_and_programs/cybersafety_plan/internet_service_provider_isp_filtering/isp_filtering_live_pilot/isp_filtering_-_frequently_asked_questions[/url] (Part 4)
The limited bandwidth is a downside of being far away from other countries. Besides, If it's an AUSTRALIAN computer contacting an AUSTRALIAN server, does the distance away make any difference? No. Whereas if we moved the servers to the U.S. thats when our 'limited bandwidth' will actually slow the connection speed down.
The part about violent video games isn't even relevant here.
And the last part of all, he was clearly making a joke, loosen up a bit.
Man, oil rig data servers could be an option here.
How is this harming trade? It's private data
[QUOTE=kaze4159;35565781]How is this harming trade? It's private data[/QUOTE]
Because the US isn't seeing any of the money.
disregarding all of the ridiculous bills coming out of the US, why on earth would you put a cloud server where it would take significantly longer to download all the data?
Go away US government, you're worse than our own government
We also have some of the best server farms in the world. I think the on in my uni was or is the biggest in the world.
[QUOTE=Mlisen14;35565936]We also have some of the best server farms in the world. I think the on in my uni was or is the biggest in the world.[/QUOTE]
Bigger than google's?
[QUOTE=Mlisen14;35565936]We also have some of the best server farms in the world. I think the on in my uni was or is the biggest in the world.[/QUOTE]
Bigger isn't always better.
Okay, America you're asking us to hinder our already limited bandwidth so we can host in your country for free trade? Isn't that the exact opposite of what you're saying, as the source states "for free trade" in AMERICA forcing business out of AUSTRALIA. God damn, this hypocrisy is what makes me hate so many fucking Americans.
[QUOTE=Stick it in her pooper;35565368]Actually they don't, there's just a few corrupt nutjobs in the U.S congress right now that are sponsoring potential bills to pass because the corporations that want them passed basically fund their whole re-election campaign. But it's funny that you criticize the U.S for online censorship laws (which they don't have any) when you have a goddamn ISP based internet blacklist like china, limited bandwidth, and a government that bans violent games.
I'm sure you love being protected from yourself[/QUOTE]
er whoops I rated this dumb because I thought you were saying the US had those horrible horrible things
but also Australia recently got a rating for 18+ games so really only games like Postal are banned there now
[editline]14th April 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Hiruty;35566925]this hypocrisy is what makes me hate so many fucking Americans.[/QUOTE]
Now this is a [b]prime[/b] example of stupid.
The US [b]Government[/b] is fucking hypocritical and greedy and biased and whatever else you want to call it. The only reason we even still have these people in here (with the exception of like one or two guys) is because the corporations have slowly been taking away our right to vote. Blaming the [b]entire[/b] population for something the government did is both stupid and bigoted - it's on par with blaming all Muslims for 9/11, blaming all Hispanics for Trayvon Martin's death (disregarding the big shitstorm the country's throwing about the case), blaming all North Koreans for Kim Jong-Il, etc etc.
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