Data protection in the clouds

Abstract

Cloud computing appears as the last step of the evolution of information systems since the technology is using all the possibilities of the virtual world. Before the cloud, the Internet was a set of connections between computers and networks, now it is becoming (it already became?) a place where data can be stored. The phenomenon concerns social networks and other Web 2.0 platforms as well as companies that partly of wholly delocalize their computing resources. This chapter evokes the main privacy issues raised by this evolution. We pinpoint problems related to the protection of legal persons, to security, to transborder data flows, which are inherent to cloud computing and, finally, to the problems met by the law enforcement authorities. This contribution highlights some of the main issues raised by the cloud computing from the perspective of the Council of Europe's Convention 108 (of January 28, 1981) for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data Council and it considers its possible modification. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.