Cloud Computing, Data Privacy Rules, and Data Security

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: Rick Robinson.

New data privacy regulations in both the EU and US could impose additional security management and privacy protection standards for cloud computing. And for IT managers at midsize firms the new rules could end up being a good thing.

Yes, the new rules will mean more work for IT, in learning and applying them. And no one really likes having to follow regulations imposed from outside. But especially when it comes to the cloud, the privacy that firms will be called on to protect could include their own…

Evolving Security Standards

As Ellen Messmer reports at InfoWorld, expanded data privacy protections are on their way from the European Union (EU), and in the US as well. And the impact of these new rules will be felt particularly in cloud computing.

Currently Europe still operates under a welter of national regulations, based on general EU guidelines developed some years ago. A new set of unified rules was developed and released this year, though it may be a couple of years more before they become law. These new European rules will reaffirm an established trend: European data privacy standards are considerably stronger and more consumer-oriented than in the United States. This could be bad news for marketers, restricting "behavioral targeting." But for IT, a single set of rules simplifies compliance…

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