Yank Google Cloud Computing Services: EPIC
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- The Electronic Privacy Information Center wants the Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation into Google’s Cloud Computing Services — including Gmail, Google Docs, and Picasa.
Says EPIC »»»
This complaint concerns privacy and security risks associated with the provision of ‘Cloud Computing Services’ by Google, Inc. to American consumers, businesses, and federal agencies of the United States government. Recent reports indicate that Google does not adequately safeguard the confidential information that it obtains. Given the previous opinionsof the Federal Trade Commission regarding the obligation of service providers to ensure security, EPIC here by petitions the Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation into Googles Cloud Computing Services, to determine the adequacy of the privacy and security safeguards, to assess the representations made by the firm regarding these services, to determine whether the firm has engaged in unfair and/or deceptive trade practices, and to take any such measures as are necessary, including to enjoin Google from offering such services until safeguards verifiably established. such action by the commission is necessary to ensure the safety and security information submitted to Google by American consumers, American businesses, and American federal agencies.
Or as CNet News puts it, EPIC wants the FTC to, “pull the plug on Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and the company’s other Web apps until government-approved “safeguards are verifiably established”.
“Consumers are at risk when that product is in the marketplace,” the story has FTC director Marc Rotenberg saying.
“EPIC sent the letter a week after a bug in Google Docs exposed a small fraction of word-processing and presentation documents,”says CNet, adding:
“Google said the problem affected only 0.05 percent of documents stored at the site, that affected Google Docs users had been notified, and it affected only people with whom users had already shared documents. As an additional punishment, EPIC wants Google to be forced to pay $5 million into a “public fund” that it and like-minded advocacy groups could financially benefit from.
“For its part, Google said it was reviewing EPIC’s letter and provided CNET with this statement: ‘Many providers of cloud computing services, including Google, have extensive policies, procedures and technologies in place to ensure the highest levels of data protection. Indeed, cloud computing can be more secure than storing information on your own hard drive. We are highly aware of how important our users’ data is to them and take our responsibility very seriously’.”
CNet News – Privacy activist asks FTC to halt Google apps, March 17, 2009
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March 18th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
and I won’t say that the stuff stored on Google’s services does not receive constitutional protection. There may be privacy statutes, but there is no Fourth Amendment protection because you willingly communicated your information to a third party (Google), and you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in that the third party won’t share anything with the government.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
… this is why you should always evaluate your risk and see whether the benefits (documents accessible from any internet-connected computer) outweigh the risks or not.