How up to speed are you with changes in the law?

In the British legal system, the law is very clear on the fact that ignorance is not a defence. You cannot simply say ‘I didn’t know’ and be let off the hook. It’s a fair position.

But there’s food for thought here. This legal perspective sits alongside the fact that changes in law and changes in company policy or systems are often not announced effectively or efficiently.

Centuries ago, we would have a Town Crier who would announce any local, relevant news once or twice a week. But now, we live in a society where announcing every law and policy change to every single person is just not possible. How often do you look at the sentencing guidelines updates, for example?

Ultimately, the systems that surround us are too complex and change too frequently for us to keep up. There’s just too much information out there. It is therefore quite possible that you won’t know about a new law or a change in the law that may affect you.

The US CLOUD Act

This point was brought into sharp focus for me the other week. I was at a Best Practice session, when the US CLOUD Act was brought up. In essence, the CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act) was ratified in 2018 and allows “American law enforcement to compel US-based tech companies to provide access to data even if the data is stored outside the country”.

This means that if a company you are a client of uses a US-based tech company to store your data, the US government has the legal right to access your data.

In the group, we were all a bit stunned by this. This seemed like a pretty big deal, but what was even more surprising was that most of us had not heard of it. This kind of information is just not readily available, even when it is professionally as well as personally relevant. It really brought it home – if we cannot stay on top of these changes, what can we do to better protect ourselves?

A reminder to be cautious about what you share online

We live in a digital era. Pretty much every company you deal with will ask you to set up an account online or share details online. And we can all sometimes be a bit too complacent about privacy. How many of us have grabbed our phones to sort an account out (often while en route somewhere) and quickly agreed to the Ts and Cs without reading them? We all have. As a result, my recommendation is actually more of a reminder.

It is a reminder to be careful about what personal and financial information you share online. It is a reminder to work only with companies you trust who you know will be doing everything they can to keep your data safe but who will also be there for you if there is a data breach or similar.

And if you’re really worried about the CLOUD Act and your data, contact your service provider and ask them what data would be shared in this situation. As always, we are also here to help.