Privacy and confidentiality in the cloud

Here’s a recent report (February 23) on the risks to privacy and confidentiality posed by cloud computing.

The report, published by the World Privacy Forum, identifies a series of issues to consider in the context of cloud services.

For example, that in certain cases it could be illegal to hand data over to a cloud service provider (in the United States), or that placing certain information in the cloud may lower the legal barriers the authorities would face to get at confidential personal information.

Interesting, because the WPF is worried about the way the cloud could endanger privacy, and could break the symmetry of information confidentiality in favor of the State, to the detriment of the citizen.

While leafing through this report, I couldn’t help thinking about the cloud services provided by the Chilean State. For example, the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (the Chilean tax agency) has been providing cloud services for quite a while (how convenient it is to issue your fee invoice using the system they provide).

Well, for a long time now we’ve let our state, and other public or semi-public institutions, handle a lot of information about us. The bad part is that often this information isn’t secured.

It would be interesting to contrast what the WPF lays out with the Chilean reality, in the context of the cloud services the Chilean government is implementing.