The US Patriot Act and cloud computing: trick or treat?

There's a lot to be scared about at this time of the year, not least the shameful lack of creativity displayed by your average 'trick or treat' teenager when it comes to outfit choice. Just repeating 'I want your candy' over and over while wearing a monster mask is not enough to scare me. However, it would appear that many enterprises are scared enough of the looming threat of someone in an Uncle Sam mask demanding 'I want your data' to either avoid cloud storage altogether or rule out what might otherwise prove to be more economical provider choices. Yes, I'm talking about the Patriot Act, as is a newly published International Data Corporation study.