ExtremeTech’s cloud Bill of Rights

Grazed from ExtremeTech. Author: Joel Hruska.

The cloud is everywhere these days. Like its real-life namesakes, the concept and implementation of cloud computing is vague, fluffy, and hard to define. Larry Ellison had a point when he declared that cloud computing has been redefined “to include everything that we already do… It’s complete gibberish.”

If the definition of cloud computing is vague, the need to protect the rights of people who use cloud computing services is clear and pressing. We’ve compiled a list of five basic freedoms that are essential if the rights of the individual are to be protected against individual hackers as well as competing government and commercial interests. Each of these rights/freedoms is tied to real-world events that have threatened it…

These five rights rely on two common principles. First, that personal data remains personal property regardless of where it’s stored. Second, that personal data has intrinsic value that can be recognized without attaching a concrete price tag. This last is scarcely controversial — Google’s entire business model is based on mashing personal data into theoretically anonymous advertising sausage…

Read more from the source @ http://www.extremetech.com/internet/134687-extremetechs-cloud-bill-of-rights