The CLOUD Act and Google: How it affects your data

What is the CLOUD Act and what does it mean when it comes to my privacy as a Google customer?

The CLOUD Act — Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data — is a set of regulations handling how data stored in one country can be accessed by an entity in a different country. It was signed into law on March 23, 2018 as part of the Omnibus Spending Bill.

It's been praised by technology companies and a joint letter from Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Oath (Yahoo!) lending support to the bill was published on February 6, 2018. it states, in part:

The new Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act reflects a growing consensus in favor of protecting Internet users around the world and provides a logical solution for governing cross-border access to data. Introduction of this bipartisan legislation is an important step toward enhancing and protecting individual privacy rights, reducing international conflicts of law and keeping us all safer.

But privacy and civil rights organizations have a different opinion of the legislation. The ACLU had this to say:

The CLOUD Act represents a major change in the law — and a major threat to our freedoms. Congress should not try to sneak it by the American people by hiding it inside of a giant spending bill. There has not been even one minute devoted to considering amendments to this proposal. Congress should robustly debate this bill and take steps to fix its many flaws, instead of trying to pull a fast one on the American people.