Legal Aspects of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing exists in an exciting, complex, and dynamic legal environment spanning both public and private law: countries actively try to protect the rights of their citizens and encourage adoption of the cloud through strict, effective, and fair regulatory approaches, and businesses and cloud service providers (CSPs) work together to craft contracts to the benefit of both. The standards and requirements contained in these laws and contracts vary considerably, and may be in conflict with one another. In addition, there are special considerations that must be undertaken when data flows across borders between organizations that operate in two different jurisdictions. In this chapter, we discuss the legal landscape in which cloud computing exists; provide a high-level overview of relevant laws and regulations that govern it, including how countries have addressed the problem of transborder dataflows, and describe the increasingly important role played by contracts between cloud service providers and their clients.