The Bahamas looking to become global data storage hub

The Bahamas can exploit developed country “overreaction” to become a leading international jurisdiction for commercial data storage, a top industry specialist adding that its client base in this nation had doubled in the last two years.

Chris Evans, chief executive of Foreshore, a Jersey-headquartered commercial data centre and Internet services provider, told Tribune Business that the “warrantless access” law enforcement agencies in the US, UK and Europe now enjoyed had “undermined the security” of legitimate, commercial electronic data.

This, he suggested, had created an opening for the Bahamas and other small island states to establish themselves as secure locations for the storage of commercially sensitive data, preventing its unwarranted disclosure to third parties.

“Many of the larger economies have implemented, or overreacted in implementing, legislation that verges on encroaching on civil liberties,” Mr Evans told Tribune Business. “The technology to be able to store vast quantities of data is widespread enough, and the law enforcement agencies are able to make use of technology that only national security agencies could use in the past.

“That power has meant that sometimes information is made available” without law enforcement agencies first requiring a warrant from the courts to seize it. Such “warrantless access” in developed nations, Mr Evans added, “has undermined the security of confidential information, especially as governments are not good custodians”.

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