The Digital Forecast Is Cloudy by Viviane Reding

European consumers need protection against misuse of their information in the online “cloud,” writes Viviane Reding, European justice commissioner.Cloud computing conjures up images of floating zeroes and ones — data liberated from the desktop and drifting effortlessly from one server to the next. Consumers and companies benefit from storing information on remote servers, no matter where they are, and then pulling it back when they need it. Our societies have been transformed as users embrace social networks, blogs, newsfeeds and shared bookmarks that are kept in the cloud. Companies cut costs by outsourcing data-storage tasks.But is there a dark lining to the cloud? While this lofty world holds much economic promise and many consumer benefits, it also raises new challenges for policy makers. Consumers who store data in the cloud risk losing control over their photos, contacts and emails. Data is whirling around the world: A U.K. resident who creates an online personal agenda could use software hosted in Germany that is then processed in India, stored in Poland and accessed in Spain.
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