Web Hosting in Canada vs. USA in relation to the NSA revelations?

[gwaly]

I plan to host a website in Canada and I was wondering, in terms of the revelations about the NSA and its snooping, if my user's data is safer on a datacenter in Canada as opposed to one in the United States? Are the privacy laws in Canada stricter? In what ways?

I'd like to use the information given to me to add to my privacy policy to explain why hosting in Canada has benefits that hosting in the USA does not, in terms of privacy.

Thank you.

 

[army judge]

Borders mean NOTHING to certain alphabet agencies, according to Mr. Snowden.
Apparently, if Snowden is correct, neither do laws!!!!

Some people use websites hosted on the Asian continent, or Europe. The EU privacy laws are said to be the toughest on the planet.

Again, to the lawless, laws are simply a minor inconvenience.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

To be honest, I'd be far more concerned about hackers than I would ever worry about the NSA. Security is the #1 issue regarding private data and it doesn't matter where in the world it is located, if there is a will and there is access it can happen. And who are your potential clients? Will it even matter to them? If you're trying to host user generated content and avoid U.S. law like the DMCA, you'll find hosts even there respecting takedown notices as many of them also have data pipelines that extend into the US. The only "benefit" - if you want to call it that - is that data that sits on servers in another country is technically outside the jurisdiction of the Untied States. Hence a court of law here could not mandate that a hosting company in Canada turn over data since it would be outside of their jurisdiction to do so.

In addition, what is it you're storing? Does anyone really care? Not trying to offend you but most people's photo collection isn't of interest to the NSA, even their sordid memoirs. And if someone in the US is connecting to a server in Canada, then unless they took certain security precautions as to how that connection is maintained, the data packets could be intercepted while in the U.S. as well as being obtained by subpoenaing a person's computer and hard drive (assuming the data hasn't been deleted.)

Without knowing more, that's all I can share. I'm really not so terrified of the NSA being interested in my boring life, lol.