Lawsuit Raises Red Flags For Government Cloud Users

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Karen S. Evans.

In the technology-rich world we live in, it’s critical for everyone to understand how their data is processed and used. For the government, it is arguably even more important, given the massive amounts of sensitive citizen data it possesses and stores. As we move to more sophisticated, data-driven technological environments such as the cloud, it is imperative that all government entities become hypervigilant about making sure that vendors are handling this information appropriately.

I am not the first person to say this, and I will certainly not be the last. Recent disclosures in a California lawsuit have raised several red flags about how government data could be used by cloud vendors — particularly vendors with business models that rely heavily on advertising revenue and monetizing user data…

The lawsuit alleges that Google violated federal and state wiretap and privacy laws by data mining the email content of students who used Google’s Apps for Education and Google’s Gmail messaging service. US district judge Lucy Koh handed Google a victory last week by refusing to let the case proceed as a class action…

Read more from the source @ http://www.informationweek.com/government/cloud-computing/lawsuit-raises-red-flags-for-government-cloud-users/d/d-id/1127897

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