Hi,
This question was never discussed exhaustively and neither was an answer given yet every day this question remains unanswered we move closer to the edge of an abyss.
The extract below is from an article,
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/11/gmail-location-data-petraeus/, on the resignation of the head of the CIA as a result of a friendly request from a friend on the FBI, it is interesting to know that even in the USA who you know makes a lot of difference in how the authorities treat a threat.
"The e-mail provider and search giant releases a so-called Transparency Report
every six months, to provide users with generic statistics about
government requests for data and takedowns. The last 2011 report showed
that U.S. government agencies sought user data from Google 6,321 times
for the six months ending December 2011, which was up from 5,950 during
the first six months of 2011. The requests targeted 12,243 Google accounts in the latter half of that year, and 11,057 in the six months prior."
Google provides services to users across different countries and continents but from the statement above since the data sits in the USA then its access is governed by the law's of that jurisdiction know you understand why google will never put up a data center in Kenya and mPesa is not coming home unlike Zack.
It is now clear who owns the Internet and one of this days the owners will restrict access to certain regions because of flimsy issues like that the fellow is bald and he types funny.
Enjoy the free lunch while you can.
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix
House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696