Privacy & Cloud Services: Are We There Yet?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) remains an important requirement for many electronic services which utilise user data. GDPR compliance verification for a cloud provider is aimed to confirm that personal data provided by a user is shared in-line with the requirements of this legislation, so that any subsequent audit carried out on the provider does not lead to a financial penalty. This verification involves two aspects: (i) ensuring that user consent has been obtained; (ii) sharing of data with external cloud providers is undertaken in a transparent way, so that the user is aware of which providers the information was shared with and for what purpose. Using a survey we describe why users are still ambivalent about the use of GDPR - and how its adoption can be improved using a Blockchain-based architecture that can provide greater transparency on how GDPR compliance is supported by cloud providers.