March 19, 2009 by James Oliver
Federal regulators met in Washington yesterday to discuss security concerns surrounding cloud computing, the technology that would allow personal files and folders to be stored on remote servers as opposed to individual hard drives.
Proponents claim that the technology would allow for far greater efficiency in terms of the storing of information. However, privacy activists have raised questions over the implications of people’s personal data being stored on remote servers outside of their control.
The two day meeting of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is aimed at ascertaining whether or not implementing cloud computing would be worth the increased regulation of server providers that would no doubt be required to guarantee the security of users’ information.
The meeting follows a series of other meetings of its type relating other risks or concerns regarding internet users. Subjects such as spam and behavioural targeting have been discussed previously. It’s all part of the FTC’s attempts to get serious about dealing with the issues raised by the new digital economy.
Deputy Director, Hugh Stephenson summed up the situation nicely, stating, “We need to be smarter about dealing with technology, and cloud computing is posing (a) risk for us.”
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