Cloud Computing: Data Privacy & the Cloud

Most laws that have gotten put into place as of today are there to protect the private and personal information of citizens that reside within that country. These laws regulate the ability of companies to "process" the data of individual people and citizens within that country. Many countries are also working together with other countries who share data clouds and other remote ways to store material to protect the information of their citizens that may be controlled by other countries, which means that many of these laws now pertain to two (or many) countries.

However, there are new laws slowly getting enacted that aim to protect information that is not just about individual citizen's personal information, but it is expanding to protect businesses and their information. The following are some things to consider when you are storing information and data in clouds for your business:

Data Security:

The data that you put into clouds will generally end up getting kept pretty safe. However, you do want to consider what type of information you are storing in these clouds. The most sensitive information that is vital to the security of your company such as your employee's individual and personal information should still get kept on premises on physical storage devices to avoid that information having the chance of getting compromised.

Data Location:

Consider where your company is storing their information that gets stored in clouds. You want to consider the laws in the country where you are storing your information, the methods of how the information is secured, what measures are taken to protect the information, and how the information is transferred into and out of the clouds your company uses.

Data Oversight:

Understand the policies of the cloud server that you are using and how it detects, reports, and security audits. You want to use a cloud company that communicates with your company during every step of the auditing process. The company has to this to comply with the security and privacy data laws in almost all countries, and they are also required to provide notices if there are any detected security breaches to the information your company keeps in that cloud.

The CLOUD Act:

The CLOUD Act was an act that was designed to solve the problems of both ethical and legal dilemmas that have faced the cloud industry ever since it was created and became a popular way to store information. The CLOUD Act gives the government the right to access all data stored in clouds, even if that data gets kept in another country.

The CLOUD Act has ignited a new debate between privacy advocates and the government on who has rights to access what information. Many people are claiming that the CLOUD Act is a massive overreach of power on the part of the US Government and others even argue that it breaks the norms of international privacy laws.