Corporate information technology appears to be moving toward "cloud computing" -- an environment accessible to all over the Internet or other communication means, where the customer (or user) directly uses application programs made available by the service provider.
The user's data is then stored on the provider's servers, i.e., "in the cloud,"[FOOTNOTE 1] and may be shared among many parties. Poor economic conditions have induced a multitude of companies to explore cloud computing as a means of reducing IT costs.[FOOTNOTE 2]
Any data stored on a user's computer (e.g., records, e-mail, PowerPoint slides) may alternatively be stored in the cloud, where it is no longer in the user's custody. Securing the privacy of personal information embedded in data stored in this new environment is a generic, corporate-wide problem impacting many companies and their attorneys.[FOOTNOTE 3]
One of the first instances of a publicized cloud data breach occurred in March, with Google's announced breach in connection with its Documents and Spreadsheet products.
Google sent letters to some users stating that certain identified documents may have been shared without their knowledge with persons with whom they had previously shared documents, but whom the users had not authorized to receive the identified documents. This data breach was different from almost all previous publicized breaches: The data this time was maintained, not on the computer of the data owner or its service provider (in the normal sense), but remotely on a Google server, i.e., in the cloud.
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Source: law.com
By: David Bender
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