Last year there was a warrant served to Microsoft asking for data from one of their customers. That's likely not an unusual request, as law enforcement often will seek to gather information about suspect criminals as a part of their investigations. What was unusual in this case was a US judge was asking for data stored on systems in Ireland. Microsoft fought this subpoena on the grounds that data in another country is outside the jurisdiction of US judges.

This is a fascinating case for the future of data privacy and data residency. The US Supreme Court is going to hear this case, and as a data professional, I  am wondering what the outcome will be. Does data exist within the boundaries of a country? Or is data in some ether, where it potentially resides on all systems for an organization in all countries? Certainly we can easily access data from any connected system if we have access, but should we?

The implications of data access and privacy are large here, and I'm concerned a wild west, whatever any government wants attitude will prevail. If the US can force companies to access data in other countries, what's next? Could the Irish, Chinese, Indian, or any other government that has an Azure region force that division of Microsoft to access data in the US? Who knows. As an individual, I have concerns.

As a data professional, I'm usually bound to do what I'm told. I get paid to manage data, and if my employer asks for data in another division, I'd just access it. Likely that's what is expected of me, and for the average worker, we have no choice if we want to keep our jobs. However, I'm not sure of when or where I should access data my company owns. I'd assume I could access it all, not necessarily considering the legalities.

I don't know whether we, as data professionals, will be drawn into understanding where and when we can and should access data, but I suspect that this will be an issue for more of us unless most countries can agree on some framework of how we handle data that our company controls, but is stored in another jurisdiction.