Privacy Issues Darkening Cloud Future?
Recent security failures in some cloud-based products and services have led to some rethinking of where they can and should fit within the IT structure. Breaches at Sony, Citibank, the International Monetary Fund and others show that determined attacks by hackers and others are still problematic and need to be seriously addressed if confidence in the whole cloud concept is to be maintained.
However there is another potential issue looming ahead, as the US Patriot Act may be at odds with existing EU Data Privacy provisions. The "Patriot Act" was implement in the USA following the events of September 11, 1991 and grants pretty sweeping powers to retrieve electronic data from US-based companies under certain circumstances.
However, the data privacy regulations issued from Brussels and applying to EU countries are currently much more focused on consumer rights and protections, and are more geared towards social network such as Facebook.
The clash is when US-based concerns such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon have cloud services that are used by EU countries. Even if the servers are based in Europe, if the companies are based in the US they are subject to the provisions of the Patriot Act. European civil liberties groups are aghast that US laws might supersede their own, in particular when dealing with a sensitive area like electronic data.
Another bone of contention is that if any servers are seized as part of a Patriot Act request, it can affect other users of that particular resource causing a possible interruption of trade.
All this could lead to something as drastic as the EU banning (even if only temporarily) US companies from operating cloud services within the EU - or at least some major discussions at high levels.
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