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NSA Fallout - Canada selling itself as haven for US tech giants

CanadaJohn

Canadian Conservative
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Interesting article I thought I'd share with my friends in the US. Think it's possible? Likely? No-way?

Canada selling itself as haven for U.S. tech giants Billions of dollars could flow north as firms seek safer storage for data
“There are governmental agencies right now in Canada who are actively trying to recruit Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook and trying to convince them to build cloud infrastructure in Canada.” ROBERT HART CEO, CANADIAN CLOUD COUNCIL

The Canadian government is trying to profit from the National Security Agency spying scandal south of the border by luring frustrated American web titans such as Google and Facebook into storing sensitive banks of personal information outside the United States, the Star has learned.

151FRONTSTREET.COM An unassuming building on Front St. W. is at the heart of Toronto’s growing cloud computing industry, involving massive banks of data servers.

The revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden last year have left the world’s leading technology companies desperate to boost the confidence of web users whose emails, web searches and other sensitive information is stored mainly in warehouses of computer servers in the U.S.

While Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and others have launched a pressure campaign to have Washington rein in the NSA, Canada is hoping to profit from the discontent, said Robert Hart, founder and chief executive of the Canadian Cloud Council, an industry association representing data centre firms.

“There are governmental agencies right now in Canada who are actively trying to recruit Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook and trying to convince them to build cloud infrastructure in Canada,” Hart said Wednesday. “I would say there’s a lot of movement right now at a political level to convince some of these larger software companies . . . to host their software in Canada to get that data away from the NSA for optical reasons.”

Asked about the claim, Industry Canada said in a statement to the Star: “Industry Canada routinely meets with stakeholders in the information and communication technology industry. Canada is open to businesses who create jobs and help grow our economy.”

There is great profit to be reaped from the confidence crisis sparked by the invasive intelligence-gathering methods employed in the U.S.

One estimate claimed businesses that choose to store their sensitive data on computer servers outside the U.S. could end up costing the American economy up to $35 billion in lost revenues over three years.

Canada, with its proximity to the United States, its skilled workforce, cold climate and relatively cheap sources of electricity, is in an ideal position to benefit, said Hart, although many countries around the world are competing for a piece of the market.
“I think right now Canadian and international organizations have a monumental opportunity to capture a lot of business from organizations that no longer want to deal with the States,” he said.

The documents pilfered and leaked by Snowden, a former NSA contractor, show how intelligence agencies use top secret court warrants domestically and more nefarious means around the world to cast a spy net that captures not only terror suspects but law-abiding Americans, foreign businesses and citizens, and even world leaders.

The most direct access to supposedly confidential online information has come from the data centres that store companies’ digital information. These servers — housed in giant climate-controlled warehouses — are the backbone of the cloud-computing industry.

“Companies are looking to move and think about how they’re storing their data, where they’re storing their data, who has access to it and under what conditions,” said Daniel Castro, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Based on the rapid collapse in global confidence, Castro has estimated that the United States stands to lose as much as $35 billion of the cloudcomputing market, which is anticipated to be worth more than $200 billion by 2016.

“There’s two sides to the story. One is what does it actually mean to move your data somewhere else — do you have more protection or not?” said Castro. “The other story is that even if you don’t have more protection, you can market it to your customers . . . That’s why I think there is maybe an opportunity there.”

No one will say which companies have decided to flee the U.S., but they are said to vary from European banking and insurance firms with operations in the U.S. to American oil and gas companies and retail outlets, according to Canadian industry representatives interviewed by the Star. “There’s a real tendency, especially among foreigners like European companies operating in the United States,” said Martin Bouchard, a principal with 4Degrés, a Quebec City data centre that is opening for business in March.

“It’s also a question of perception. The Europeans want to say to their clients that their information is not in the United States even though it stays in North America.” Toronto is the data-centre capital of Canada and home to an unassuming seven-storey palace of cloud computing at 151 Front St. W. Montreal runs a close second, and Bouchard said that Quebec, with its cheap hydroelectricity, has a natural leg-up on other Canadian jurisdictions in an industry whose primary costs are air conditioning and power. Despite the boom underway, everyone acknowledges that information stored in Canada or any other country may, in the end, be no more safe from the prying eyes of American spies than it was before. “The NSA hires probably the smartest hackers on the planet Earth,” said Hart. “If they want to get into somebody’s data, they’re going to get it, no doubt about it.”


http://torontostar.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
 
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I wouldn't be surprised to see some companies flee our oppressive government and head to Canada. The NSA needs to take a chill pill.

Just as we in NV take businesses out of CA. Actions have consequences. Someone loses and someone wins.

How are Canadian taxes in comparison with US taxes? Real question.
 
Eh...it's awful cold up there. Just saying.
 
I wouldn't be surprised to see some companies flee our oppressive government and head to Canada. The NSA needs to take a chill pill.

Just as we in NV take businesses out of CA. Actions have consequences. Someone loses and someone wins.

How are Canadian taxes in comparison with US taxes? Real question.

Our corporate tax rate is significantly lower than in the US, but the effective tax rate is a little harder to determine, based on which jurisdiction a company may set up shop. Paying for labour and services in Canadian dollars - now at a three year low against the American dollar - would be a cost saving, and it's not as if such operations rely on transporting a product to market, increasing costs the further away from US hubs you locate.

All of the major players have operations in Canada - just seeing a chunk of this niche moving north because of the NSA actions would be a whole other type of move.
 
And besides...what makes anyone think Canada is any safer from the NSA than anywhere else?
 
You think the NSA can't get that ****? They'll get it.
 
Interesting article I thought I'd share with my friends in the US. Think it's possible? Likely? No-way?

Canada selling itself as haven for U.S. tech giants Billions of dollars could flow north as firms seek safer storage for data
“There are governmental agencies right now in Canada who are actively trying to recruit Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook and trying to convince them to build cloud infrastructure in Canada.” ROBERT HART CEO, CANADIAN CLOUD COUNCIL

The Canadian government is trying to profit from the National Security Agency spying scandal south of the border by luring frustrated American web titans such as Google and Facebook into storing sensitive banks of personal information outside the United States, the Star has learned.

151FRONTSTREET.COM An unassuming building on Front St. W. is at the heart of Toronto’s growing cloud computing industry, involving massive banks of data servers.

The revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden last year have left the world’s leading technology companies desperate to boost the confidence of web users whose emails, web searches and other sensitive information is stored mainly in warehouses of computer servers in the U.S.

While Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and others have launched a pressure campaign to have Washington rein in the NSA, Canada is hoping to profit from the discontent, said Robert Hart, founder and chief executive of the Canadian Cloud Council, an industry association representing data centre firms.

“There are governmental agencies right now in Canada who are actively trying to recruit Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook and trying to convince them to build cloud infrastructure in Canada,” Hart said Wednesday. “I would say there’s a lot of movement right now at a political level to convince some of these larger software companies . . . to host their software in Canada to get that data away from the NSA for optical reasons.”

Asked about the claim, Industry Canada said in a statement to the Star: “Industry Canada routinely meets with stakeholders in the information and communication technology industry. Canada is open to businesses who create jobs and help grow our economy.”

There is great profit to be reaped from the confidence crisis sparked by the invasive intelligence-gathering methods employed in the U.S.

One estimate claimed businesses that choose to store their sensitive data on computer servers outside the U.S. could end up costing the American economy up to $35 billion in lost revenues over three years.

Canada, with its proximity to the United States, its skilled workforce, cold climate and relatively cheap sources of electricity, is in an ideal position to benefit, said Hart, although many countries around the world are competing for a piece of the market.
“I think right now Canadian and international organizations have a monumental opportunity to capture a lot of business from organizations that no longer want to deal with the States,” he said.

The documents pilfered and leaked by Snowden, a former NSA contractor, show how intelligence agencies use top secret court warrants domestically and more nefarious means around the world to cast a spy net that captures not only terror suspects but law-abiding Americans, foreign businesses and citizens, and even world leaders.

The most direct access to supposedly confidential online information has come from the data centres that store companies’ digital information. These servers — housed in giant climate-controlled warehouses — are the backbone of the cloud-computing industry.

“Companies are looking to move and think about how they’re storing their data, where they’re storing their data, who has access to it and under what conditions,” said Daniel Castro, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Based on the rapid collapse in global confidence, Castro has estimated that the United States stands to lose as much as $35 billion of the cloudcomputing market, which is anticipated to be worth more than $200 billion by 2016.

“There’s two sides to the story. One is what does it actually mean to move your data somewhere else — do you have more protection or not?” said Castro. “The other story is that even if you don’t have more protection, you can market it to your customers . . . That’s why I think there is maybe an opportunity there.”

No one will say which companies have decided to flee the U.S., but they are said to vary from European banking and insurance firms with operations in the U.S. to American oil and gas companies and retail outlets, according to Canadian industry representatives interviewed by the Star. “There’s a real tendency, especially among foreigners like European companies operating in the United States,” said Martin Bouchard, a principal with 4Degrés, a Quebec City data centre that is opening for business in March.

“It’s also a question of perception. The Europeans want to say to their clients that their information is not in the United States even though it stays in North America.” Toronto is the data-centre capital of Canada and home to an unassuming seven-storey palace of cloud computing at 151 Front St. W. Montreal runs a close second, and Bouchard said that Quebec, with its cheap hydroelectricity, has a natural leg-up on other Canadian jurisdictions in an industry whose primary costs are air conditioning and power. Despite the boom underway, everyone acknowledges that information stored in Canada or any other country may, in the end, be no more safe from the prying eyes of American spies than it was before. “The NSA hires probably the smartest hackers on the planet Earth,” said Hart. “If they want to get into somebody’s data, they’re going to get it, no doubt about it.”


Toronto Star Replica Edition

It was inexcusable not to have continously explain what the US agencies were doing, why and how they are controlled. That should have started before Bush and it was negligent to an extreme not to have done so, since the capabilities have grown so much and we have been criticizing countries like China for their data mining.
 
Eh...it's awful cold up there. Just saying.

I might actually make it more efficient as giant tech companies have to spend fortunes to cool their data centres. It doesn't help that most of them are in the middle of a desert.
 
Well, we don't have an imperial Presidency here and the Queen keeps her nose clean and stays in England.
Tell that to Germany. Or Spain. Or Russia. Or France.
 
It was inexcusable not to have continously explain what the US agencies were doing, why and how they are controlled. That should have started before Bush and it was negligent to an extreme not to have done so, since the capabilities have grown so much and we have been criticizing countries like China for their data mining.

Well, see, when other people do it, it's tyranny. When we do it, it's in defense of liberty, and therefor, sacred.
 
Our corporate tax rate is significantly lower than in the US, but the effective tax rate is a little harder to determine, based on which jurisdiction a company may set up shop. Paying for labour and services in Canadian dollars - now at a three year low against the American dollar - would be a cost saving, and it's not as if such operations rely on transporting a product to market, increasing costs the further away from US hubs you locate.

All of the major players have operations in Canada - just seeing a chunk of this niche moving north because of the NSA actions would be a whole other type of move.

I think even Quebec has lower corporate taxes and Quebec would probably be one of the provinces they go to since it is the high-tech and highly educated province.
 
You think the NSA can't get that ****? They'll get it.

Well, I certainly don't know the legal ramifications for a US company like Google, should the NSA come knocking and Google has all its data stored in Canada or some other jurisdiction. They may be coerced into bringing it back, however, if they have to rely on Canadian courts to give them access, they likely won't have the same ease of access.
 
I think even Quebec has lower corporate taxes and Quebec would probably be one of the provinces they go to since it is the high-tech and highly educated province.

Provincial taxes are likely going to be higher there, but I'm not sure.
 
Well, I certainly don't know the legal ramifications for a US company like Google, should the NSA come knocking and Google has all its data stored in Canada or some other jurisdiction. They may be coerced into bringing it back, however, if they have to rely on Canadian courts to give them access, they likely won't have the same ease of access.
Courts?


You're not familiar with our "Patriot Act", are you?
 
Well, see, when other people do it, it's tyranny. When we do it, it's in defense of liberty, and therefor, sacred.

It would make it easier, if it were that simple.

You do know that there is a difference between instruments and motives?
 
Provincial taxes are likely going to be higher there, but I'm not sure.

I looked at it and Quebec is rivalling other provinces and is far lower than the U.S.. The only reason taxes are high in Quebec is due to those payroll taxes, which Quebec has a way of reducing taxes for certain businesses (the video-games industry for example) and also these are California companies so they should be used to it. Quebec is the highest taxed jurisdiction in North America but only if the province doesn't like your business.
 
And besides...what makes anyone think Canada is any safer from the NSA than anywhere else?

Not safer than the spying but less chance of forced cooperation and being forced to turn over records.

Or maybe just the principle of it. Honestly, the USA seems to be moving toward the NK approach of supreme dictatorship by the government. We are less and less "the land of the free". For most of us that changes nothing. But it is sad anyway.
 
Well, I certainly don't know the legal ramifications for a US company like Google, should the NSA come knocking and Google has all its data stored in Canada or some other jurisdiction. They may be coerced into bringing it back, however, if they have to rely on Canadian courts to give them access, they likely won't have the same ease of access.

What does the NSA use courts for? Those are only after the fact institutions they use to try to claim that their illegal spying and data collection techniques are legal.
 
Our corporate tax rate is significantly lower than in the US, but the effective tax rate is a little harder to determine, based on which jurisdiction a company may set up shop. Paying for labour and services in Canadian dollars - now at a three year low against the American dollar - would be a cost saving, and it's not as if such operations rely on transporting a product to market, increasing costs the further away from US hubs you locate.

All of the major players have operations in Canada - just seeing a chunk of this niche moving north because of the NSA actions would be a whole other type of move.

Don't kid yourself, the effective tax rate in the US is hard to determine, too!
 
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