I am in business in Canada, and I have been looking for hosting services. I signed up with bluehost last year, and was quite happy with them to start, but I was advised by someone that I shouldn't have hosting on US servers because the US government could go in without a warrant and obtain any data it chose, and that it could expose me to potential liability by upset clients that I exposed communications and information to US authorities. However, it seems many business people in Canada do this practice. Is there any concern by foreigners on this forum exposing data on US servers, and alternatively, do any Americans on this forum host offshore for these reasons?
well if you arent doing anything wrong then you don' t have to worry, but i do have to say skrew the patriot act and their terrorist administration. what is your business?
I am in financial services, and my business is completely legit. However, although it is unlikely to ever happen and I do not believe that I have any clients who in any way could investigated under the patriot act, it seems prudent to play it safe. Unfortunately, good inexpensive providers with many features outside the US are fairly few and far between.
If you have sensitive information, even if it is not illegal, you have a right to be concerned with the Patriot Act and government spying. Laws could change in the next presidential administration so you might consider waiting it out to see. If it would be prohibitively expensive to get hosting elsewhere the risks of staying in the US aren't too great.
In Canada, under the criminal code, a network administrator can carry out a warrentless search of their network. Meaning, it's pretty much the same thing, however, liability issues can come up. As per the hosting in the US, I have a couple of boxes racked up in the US, and as someone mentioned earlier, if you are not a terrorist or doing something highly illegal don't worry about integrity...For hosting off shore - hahahaha where? India? India has the highest non-compliance issue out of any outsourcing country. Stick to what is known to be reliable my friend. -A fellow Canadian.
If you were happy with BH, you could try Host Papa, which is Canadian and also environmentally conscious. The servers are offset by carbon emission credits, which is what sold me. I am a US webmaster and always buy Canadian hosting.