Whose law governs Canadian data? Why the CLOUD Act matters now!

Dear Appleton Clause & Effect Readers,

I have just published a new piece on Appleton’s Clause & Effect that I would strongly encourage you to read—and, if you find it useful, to forward to a colleague.

The post is titled “Whose Law Governs Canadian Data? The CLOUD Act, Digital Sovereignty, and Why Canadians Should Pay Attention Now.”

Many Canadians assume that if data is stored in Canada, it is governed by Canadian law. That assumption is understandable. It is also wrong.

The U.S. CLOUD Act quietly enables foreign legal access to Canadian data held by U.S.-controlled cloud providers—often without Canadian court involvement and sometimes using legal standards that would be unconstitutional if applied in Canada. This is not a hypothetical risk. It is the legal environment in which Canada is already operating.

The blog is the accessible version of my new SSRN working paper, which explains:

• why data residency is not data sovereignty,

• how the CLOUD Act already reaches Canadian institutions,

• why proposed “expedited” Canada–U.S. arrangements raise serious constitutional concerns, and

• what this means for Canadian sovereignty, prosperity, and policy agency.

This issue affects government, healthcare, finance, defence, universities, and any organization relying on foreign cloud infrastructure—which is most of Canada.

If you work with policymakers, lawyers, public servants, technologists, or institutional leaders, I encourage you to forward this post to them. These are decisions Canada still has time to shape—but only if the implications are understood.

As always, I welcome your comments and engagement on the Substack.

Thank you for reading Appleton’s Clause & Effect.

Prof. Barry Appleton

 Working paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/pa…

Cloud policy is constitutional policy. Digital infrastructure is governance infrastructure.

Hold onto your constitutionally protected digital privacy rights while you can