Tony Seno Hartono
Data Sovereignty: Does it Matter where Data is Stored?

We live in an era where everything is interconnected, in which the world is becoming borderless, and this impacts the way we work, live and play. Physical and digital worlds are converging, creating new opportunities but also new challenges to individuals, organizations and governments. Cloud technology enables people and organizations to be more competitive while at the same time producing data sovereignty issues. Based on the US Patriot Act, every piece of data stored in a data center owned by a US corporation is equivalent to data residing in a US-based data center, and the US government can access any information stored in it without your permission or notifying you. The bottom line: where data is stored, i.e. its physical location, is no longer sufficient to establish data sovereignty.