we do not to perform any backups, including software;
we have no more storage limitations, adding more storage room is quick and easy;
ubiquity, all services are available from anywhere.
Some problems with cloud computing that media repeat over time:
Closed applications that are difficult to expand or modify: you cannot change (add features, customize, etc.) Google Documents easily
Availability outsourced: to access a single Google Document we rely on our PC, our web browser, our Internet provider, Google, the government regulation (e.g. you depend on the Chinese government to allow Google to operate in China), etc.
But, where are our data? Where is our privacy? Most of our data/privacy is on Google, Microsoft and Amazon, the later the biggest provider of cloud platforms.
Indeed, some service providers cannot only access our data, but do have control over our devices:
What happened with Amazon’s Kindle and the novel “1984” affair: erased a novel from all books, got sued (and lost), but doubled their sales of Kindles.
Facebook will retain ownership of your photos: huge claims for intellectual property and privacy, but Facebook users in Spain almost tripled during the “scandal”.
The case of the accountability service that showed that no one reads the terms of service.
All in all: people do not read the terms of service and accept whatever terms. But the thing is that most service providers require this free access to data to be able to let data to third parties, the basis of the business plan.
Open Cloud Computing / Open Cloud Compliant: the services are in the cloud, but the user can choose where the data will be stored. At least, this allows for the user to know where their data are. It also avoids conflicts of interest: the one that provides the service is not the same that provides the infrastructure: the service provider will ensure that data are safe, and the infrastructures provider will ensure that the infrastructure supports the service.
We should then differentiate between infrastructure cloud computing and services cloud computing. Open cloud computing means that these are separate and there’s a possibility of choice, and closed means that they all come together with a single provider: in this case, privacy risks arise.
The average user prefers ‘easy’ to ‘nice’, even if ‘easy’ means ‘ugly’. This creates de facto standards. People prefer applications to be fast and easy, even if it is less powerful or less nice.
About eyeOS
eyeOS is an open-source browser based web desktop, which means that it acts as a framework that, once the user is logged in, logs the user to whatever application runs on this desktop. Thus, the user does not need to remember where the applications are (what third parties’ services) and how to log in them.
(NOTE: here comes an interesting discussion about institutional and individual uses of open cloud services, the free software community, etc.)
Privacy in the Cloud, a Misty Topic? Ronald Leenes, Universiteit van Tilburg
An introduction to Cloud Computing
What is the relationship between Cloud computing, Grid computing, service oriented architecture (SOA) and Web 2.0?
Increasingly, data and applications are stored and/or run on a web server that hosts what usually was on your local machine. The web browser becomes the usual platform. Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources.
If we talk about “resources”, the definition becomes broader, as we can also speak about computing power or computing time. And these resources are shared by many users, instead of having a dedicated machine. This provide rapid elasticity that allows for easy and quick scaling (up or down).
Models
Software as a Service (Saas): e.g. webmail, online office applications; etc.
Platform as a Service (Paas): e.g. Amazon AWS platform;
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): all the power you might have in our PC, in the cloud.
Advantages
Price: many cloud services are reee.
Reliability: redundancy of services and scalability makes the system more stable.
Accessibility: your services, everywhere.
No piracy.
Multiple business models: fees, ads, etc.
Always current version of the software, no needs to update.
Privacy and security issues
Privacy: bodily integrity, data protection, inviolability of the home, secrecy of communications. The later two are specially relevant for cloud computing.
Data protection goals aim at facilitating the free flow of information while providing a minimum level of data protection. Data aspects: confidentiality, integrity, availability. The three of them are (more or less) under control while data are stored in a PC. In the cloud it is certainly less so.
The first thing to state is that, in the cloud, you don’t know where your data exactly are. Indeed, those date are interlinkable by other services, which make them even more ubiquitous while difficult to locate.
Second is that, in “physical” life, one’s identity is made up of different and partial identities of one self. There is a certain control to segregate audiences according to what they can see of me. Not in the cloud. To a large extent, we’re evolving toward a world where you are who Google says that you are (JD Lassica).
As data travel from my browser (and through the Internet) to a cloud service, anyone can potentially intercept your travelling data. The way to avoid this is use encryption (HTTPS) but cloud services do not usually have the incentive to (unlike banks, that are liable for data loss or money stealing) and do have incentives not to (HTTPS requires much more server power and time to encrypt and decrypt, thus making it more expensive at the aggregate level).
Personal data: data that can lead to identification of a person (data subject). Thus, personal data can be taken very broadly as even an e-mail message can lead to identifiable individuals. A processor is a body that processes personal data. A data controller holds or stores personal data.
The DPD is applicable when the data controller is within the European Union jurisdiction, regardless of where the data processor is.
Thus, if Google just provides a platform where the user processes their data, then Google is not a controller, but a processor, which means it is being affected differently by the (European) law. But if data, after being processed, are stored in Google’s servers, then Google becomes a controller. So, cloud service providers can switch between data controlling and data processing or both at a time, with legal consequences.
DPD principles: transparency, legitimate purpose and proportionality.
Discussion
Jordi Vilanova: are there any legal differences in privacy between individuals and institutions? A: legally, in strict sense it only applies to individuals. In the case of companies, we would be talking about intellectual property, trade secrets, etc.
Mònica Vilasau: to balance unequal distribution of bargaining power between service providers and users, what should be done? More regulation? Better contracts? Is the data protection directive enough for cloud computing? A: Contracts should suffice, as they are a very powerful tool. The difference is that in the EU privacy is a public good that needs to be protected, so the law will always be above any contract; while in the US privacy is something that can be bargained between contractors. The DPD is not enough for cloud computing, because its purpose was to regulate over the data controller, a very identifiable agent at a time (e.g. a hospital having data of you). But now, who is a data controller or a processor is very difficult to identify.
Q: Is one of the problems that cloud services are based in the US? A: Yes, of course, if data controllers, processors and subjects were in the same jurisdiction that would make things much easier.
Mònica Vilasau: what about cookies? A: if you accept cookies, you get less of your privay. If you do not, the service provider is no more a data controller (it is not storing data from you, because you refused the cookie) and then you are no more under the DPD. This is an ironic dichotomy.
I am proud to announce the 6th Internet, Law and Politics Conference, this time dealing about Cloud Computing and the challenges it poses in the fields of Law and Politicals.
The event will take place in Barcelona, Spain, the 7th and 8th July, 2010. There will be translation in Spanish, Catalan and English and registration is open and free.
Programme
Wednesday 7 July 2010
8.30 am
Accreditations
9.00 am
Welcome
Pere Fabra, UOC Vice President for Academic Organisation and Faculty.
Agustí Cerrillo, Director of the UOC’s Law and Political Science department.
9.30 am
Keynote speech: Privacy in the Cloud, a Misty Topic?
Ronald Leenes, professor, Tilburg University. Moderator: Mònica Vilasau, UOC.
10.30 am
Coffee break
11.00 am
Myths and Realities of Cloud Computing
EyeOS.
Moderator: Ismael Peña (UOC).
12.00 pm
Round table: Key Legal Aspects for Putting your Business in the Cloud.
Xavier Ribas, lawyer, Landwell Global.
Manel Martínez Ribas, lawyer, ID-LawPartners.
Ramon Miralles, Coordinator of Information Security and Auditing, Catalan Data Protection Agency.
Moderator: Miquel Peguera, UOC.
2.00 pm
Lunch
4.00 pm
Round table: Cloud Computing: A New Dimension in Teleworking?
Javier Thibault Aranda, professor at the Complutense University of Madrid.
Carmen Pérez Sánchez, IN3 researcher, UOC.
Javier Llinares, Managing Director, Autoritas Consulting.
Moderator: Ignasi Beltrán UOC.
6.00 pm
Conclusions from the first day.
Karma Peiró, Participation Manager, 3cat24.cat.
Thursday, 8 July 2010
9.30 am
Keynote speech: The Cloud’s Shadow: The State of Freedom on the Net
Karin Deutsch Karlekar, Senior Researcher and Managing Editor, Freedom of the Press Index, Freedom House.
10.30 am
Coffee break
11.00 am
From Electronic Administration to Cloud Administration
Discussion with:
Nagore de los Ríos, Director of Open Government and Internet Communication, Basque government.
Joan Olivares, Managing Director of Catalonia’s Open Electronic Administration Consortium.
Moderator: Agustí Cerrillo, UOC.
12.30 pm
Round table: Cyber-crime prosecution
Rubèn Mora, head of Technologies of Information Security Department, Mossos d’Esquadra.
Francisco Hernández Guerrero, Prosecutor, Andalusia.
2.00 pm
Lunch
4.00 pm
Round table: Citizen Participation in the Cloud: Risk of Showers?
Evgeny Morozov. Yahoo! fellow, Georgetown University’s E. A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.
