Drug trafficking and gmail: Now our email is needed to fight common crime?

On both sides of the Atlantic, the English-speaking giants, the United States and United Kingdom, are moving to extend their data empire over the rest of the world.

While both these power grabs may be a delayed response to Edward Snowden’s disclosures, neither explicitly deals with it. And both power grabs extend beyond intelligence collection to common crime fighting.

The U.S. data grab started back in December, when the Department of Justice applied for a warrant covering an email account Microsoft held in Ireland as part of a drug-trafficking investigation. Microsoft complied with regards to the information it stored in the U.S. (which consisted of subscriber information and address books), but challenged the order for the content of the emails.

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