Should the user data associated with any service available online be subjected to the jurisdiction of all countries?
In March of this year, a Belgian court entered judgment in a criminal case against Yahoo! and fined the company for refusing to hand over user data to Belgian law enforcement authorities under Belgian law.
The catch? Yahoo! has no subsidiary, employees or localized website in Belgium. The request — sent via email by a Belgian prosecutor to Yahoo!’s U.S. offices — was for user data held in the U.S. and associated with Yahoo! Mail accounts.
