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US regulator the Federal Trade Commission is holding a roundtable on 28 January to discuss the impact of cloud computing on consumer privacy.
The roundtable is the second of three the FTC is holding to debate the challenges posed by new technologies.
In a filing with the Federal Communications Commissions, the FTC outlined its specific concerns with cloud computing, as well as its belief that identity management policies should be strengthened in order to protect consumers from identity theft.
"We believe that strong privacy and data security protections for consumers are critical as the FCC considers technologies such as cloud computing and identity management in implementing a national broadband plan," it said.
The FTC acknowledged cloud computing benefits such as the reduced resources it takes businesses to maintain software and hardware, but the filing was dominated by fears over how data is stored in the cloud.
"The ability of cloud computing services to collect and centrally store increasing amounts of consumer data, combined with the ease with which such centrally stored data may be shared with others, creates a risk that larger amounts of data may be used by entities in ways not originally intended or understood by consumers," FTC said in the filing.
The first roundtable was held on 7 December and the final discussion is set to take place on 17 March.
05 Jan 2010
