‘These are real-life consequences’: What to know about data sovereignty as the Trump administration tries to unmask an anonymous Canadian

International trade expert Barry Appleton explains what foreign big tech companies can do with your personal information.

A legal case involving a Canadian who wants to stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from “unlawfully” obtaining his personal information from Google has raised questions about data sovereignty.

Experts say maintaining sanctity and control over data is a complex problem but ultimately, Canadians should be mindful about what they post online in the current political climate.

The anonymous Canadian wrote on his social media about the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents during immigration crackdowns in Minneapolis, which prompted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to allegedly issue an administrative subpoena to Google in February demanding detailed personal information about the unidentified plaintiff, including his name, address, location data, and credit card and bank account numbers.

A complaint filed in a California court on Monday claims the unnamed Canadian is being “unlawfully targeted” by U.S. officials as part of a continued effort “to unmask social media users who criticize the administration — a transparent gambit to chill speech that the government dislikes.”

James Kosa is the chair of technology and intellectual property at WeirFoulds, a Toronto-based law firm.

He said Canadians should know that a foreign company, and the data it stores and handles, is subject to the laws of the country where it’s based.

That includes laws that require them to hand over information they may have in their possession.

“It’s not a theoretical debate about data,” he said. “These are real-life consequences that flow from these actions.”

He said the whether the U.S.’s request for a Canadian’s data is for “an appropriate purpose or not is something the court will have to figure out, but it’s certainly being used in a ... innovative way.

“That also speaks to not just the letter of the law, but the intent of the people that use it,” he said. “I think we just need to be mindful of that in the world that we live in now.”

‘True surveillance’

Barry Appleton is a lawyer and expert in sovereign economic policy and international trade. He told CTV’s Your Morning on Friday that the U.S. government asking Google to hand over a Canadian’s personal information is “true surveillance” but there’s not much that can be done to avoid it.

“If you have your data on a server in the United States – almost all of us do – you’re going to be subjected to U.S. law whether you’re connected or not,” he said.

He added that Canadians online are being surveilled and the U.S. government is “building a dossier on you whether you like it or not.”

“That’s exactly why our data needs to be kept private and personal because it’s private and personal,” he said.

Kosa said there are email service providers hosted in other countries, which have different laws around data privacy. Both he and Appleton recommend encrypting personal data when possible.

“All Canadians needs to start thinking about encryption, they need to think about the things they can do to protect themselves and you need to check a box wherever you can that says I want my data in Canada,” said Appleton.

With files from Daniel Otis