Sweden’s Data Protection Authority has issued a decision that prohibits the nation’s public sector bodies from using the cloud service Google Apps, according to Simon Davies at privacysurgeon.org.
The ruling isn’t actually related to the fallout from the NSA defector – who revealed that the US National Security Agency are storing all of our private emails, phone calls, and social network messages – but, rather, is based on inadequacies in Google’s contract.
According to Simon Davies:
“A risk assessment by the Board determined that the contract gives Google too much covert discretion over how data can be used, and that public sector customers are unable to ensure that data protection rights are protected.
“The assessment gives several examples of this deficiency, including uncertainty over how data may be mined or processed by Google and lack of knowledge about which subcontractors may be involved in the processing. The assessment also concluded that there was no certainty about if or when data would be deleted after expiration of the contract.”
Privacy is, of course, a core concern for storing data in the cloud, and the rejection of Google’s policy shows that there are still ways to go before we attain nirvana in the clouds.
“Earlier this year the Norwegian data protection authority also demanded amendments to contract conditions for Cloud services, highlighting similar concerns
“The decision runs headlong into Google’s “one size fits all” policy and throws out a challenge to the advertising giant to provide more specific terms and protections for its services. Other EU regulators will be closely monitoring the Swedish decision,” added Mr Davies.
In similar news, an article posted on Technology Review is claiming that US companies that pass data from European Union citizens to the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program could be breaching the EU’s data-protection laws.
While TechDirt questions the economic damage that the NSA’s excessive data collection habits may cause, as companies and individuals alike switch to foreign service providers not under the jurisdiction of the NSA.
