Cloud Computing and Confidentiality

[vwood]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
California

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Is Cloud computing permissible for the purposes of privacy for client data and intellectual property and nondisclosure agreements?

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It's a general question, as nothing has come up yet. But I'm getting some consulting work and setting up my IT. I'm using lots of OpenSource and considering moving to "The Cloud", and finding that it's generally pretty darn effective and mostly free. Moving to "The Cloud" seems practical in my case, except I'd want to understand the responsibility better.

At times, the work would be code that would be the basis of a trading strategy. That would be sensitive, as a competing algo shop can try to "game" your strategy to feed you trades they want to do. If I'm writing propriety stuff for clients, would saving my workspace in "The Cloud" violate that?

The data that they would provide me could vary quite a bit. Often, it would include hedge fund returns in a context which wouldn't be highly sensitive, but "distributing" that data carelessly can sometimes be interpreted as [illegal] marketing by the SEC. If I'm using data that they provide me under a non-disclosure agreement, would storing it in "The Cloud" violate that?

I don't know much about "The Cloud". I would suppose that their admins legally can't [but practically can] look in at any time. I would suppose that I could figure out how to store encrypted data. Would it make a difference if I kept it encrypted at commercial [128-bit] strength?

Any thoughts about cloud privacy?

 

[justalayman]

the onus is upon the agent in securing the information. I do not know how secure "the cloud" is in itself. If it is possible to be seen by others if not secured either by encryption of some other means making viewing by others impossible, then the person storing the data would have to take whatever action necessary to secure the data. As long as it is secure, I see no reason it would be any less appropriate than the info being on a server in the agents office...and just how secure is that?

If I'm using data that they provide me under a non-disclosure agreement, would storing it in "The Cloud" violate that?

no because they are not intentionally disclosing the information. They would be no more at fault for a breach of confidentiality than they would if their servers were breached, presuming they took reasonable adequate means to secure the date, in either situation.

At this point in time, due to the relative newness of cloud computing, as it is now known, I would think it prudent to avoid using it for any information that is critical until such time it has been proven to be secure. I am not a tech geek so I cannot speak to any claims currently made.