Cloud Computing Data Protection -- A Literature Review and Analysis

Cloud Computing technologies are gaining increased attention both in academia and practice. Despite of its relevance and potential for more IT flexibility and its beneficial effects on costs, legal uncertainties regarding the data processing especially between large economies still exist on the customer and provider side. Against this background, this contribution aims at providing an overview of privacy issues and legal frameworks for data protection in Cloud environments discussed in recent scientific literature. Due to the overall complexity concerning international law, we decided to primarily focus on data traffic between the United States of America and the European Union. The result of our research revealed significant differences in the jurisdiction and consciousness for data protection in these two economies. As a consequence for further Cloud Computing research we identify a large number of problems that need to be addressed.