The Legal Side of the Cloud: Worrisome?

Cloud computing from a legal standpoint is all about the trust the customer has with the service provider. The customer expects that the data stored in the cloud will be safe. The customer wants guarantees that their data will not be mis-used by the provider. The provider must also accept a number of legal qualifications and limitations that protect the customer. Having faith in the provider is not good enough.

I began my career as a U.S. Air Force officer in military intelligence research and development. There I learned about collecting and protecting information. I also was tasked with finding ways to bypass the protections. Further, I learned that by collecting information from several sources, I could construct a data base that provided a broader picture than any single source had. This knowledge has led me to consider what could happen to cloud-based information.

I am not a lawyer, but some of the security and legal issues have already become clear, as I've outlined in some recent blogs:

* Cloud-Based Communications: Right for You?
* More Privacy Regulations: U.S. and Europe
* Hosted IPT and UC: Limited in Europe?
* E-Discovery Resources: Use Them
* Cloud Security, Some Guidance

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Source: nojitter.com
By: Gary Audin