Between the 12 of them, they command access to an unrivalled network of leaders that, in theory, means that they can make a difference in contexts where other means like governmental interventions might have failed.
Yesterday Microsoft lost its appeal challenging the legal standing of a U.S. Government warrant to command access to data stored abroad.
This protest act by Microsoft, arguing that domestic warrants should not be able to command access to data stored abroad, has picked up support from other technology companies.
At risk is the following: If the United States government can command access to user data stored anywhere, in any data center around the world that a company based in the US owns, then no international user data is safe from quick access by the US government.
Modern technology companies vend cloud-based services to a global user base — if any one country can use domestic warrants to command access to the data of all companies that are headquartered within its borders, regardless of where the information in question is physically stored, no company can protect the data of users who hail from other countries from its own government.
The case matters, as it will help set the precedent for the ability of the United States Government to command access to data that stored by U.S.-based companies anywhere in the world — those companies would therefore not be able section off their user data by storing it abroad, protecting foreign nationals from the sticky fingers of the government.
Chester was a strategic site for a fortress, commanding access to the sea via the River Dee and dividing the Brigantes from the Ordovices.
The Danube passage connecting Ulm, Donauworth, Ingolstadt and Regensburg had strategic importance in the ongoing competition for European hegemony between France and the Holy Roman Empire; the army that commanded the Danube, especially its passage through Württemberg and Bavaria, could command access to the important cities of Munich and the seat of Habsburg authority: Vienna.
They can also command greater access to regulators.
Many of these are small local firms that cannot command the access to credit, economies of scale or geographic diversification that big firms can.
