specialized Linux hosting question

[CLIFFORD ILKAY]

Dave Mason wrote:
> I haven't followed all of the details of this conversation, but I feel
> that I need to point out that linode.com is an american corporation and
> hence falls under the US Patriot Act, which means that the machine is
> subject to secret inspection.  (The fact its servers are spread around
> the US just makes it easier.)  The Patriot Act has very broad definition
> of 'access' with minimal judicial oversight and prevents even informing
> the investigated party (you) that your information has been accessed.
> You might be told that there was a power failure while in reality US law
> enforcement hit the reset button, captured the contents of main memory
> and your disks, and then rebooted your machine.
> 
> If you have any content that US law enforcement might find interesting,
> (and you'd be surprised how broadly that net can be) you may want to
> have it reside on a machine not accessible by US citizens or
> corporations (i.e. a US company with servers in Toronto doesn't help, a
> service contract from a US company could expose you).
> 
> Unfortunately, it is really hard to figure out what providers are not
> encumbered.  I have been looking at http://iweb.com/ but in the corner
> of their web page it says "iWeb Canada" which suggests there may be an
> iWeb US...  And even if it is fully Canadian, (putting my conspiracy hat
> on) if US spooks *really* want access to your data but want to avoid
> that messy break and enter to Canadian premises stuff, they could help
> say linode.com to buy iweb.com, and then invoke their USPA access rights.

We have servers in Canada and the U.S. but I work under no assumptions 
that government agencies cannot intercept traffic to and from those 
servers as they wish. I have no control over how packets get routed to 
and from those servers and if they happen to pass through the U.S., or 
even peer with American providers, what difference does it make where 
the servers are physically located?
-- 
Regards,

Clifford Ilkay
Dinamis Corporation
1419-3266 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON
Canada  M4N 3P6

<http://dinamis.com>
+1 416-410-3326
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