More and more businesses are moving to cloud computing due to the numerous advantages that it offers over other storage alternatives. With these developments, some issues have cropped up regarding cloud computing services, some of which have a legal nature. Therefore, businesses need to have legal contracts with their cloud service providers.
As a business owner, you should know about the amassing international legal bureaucracy that is surrounding cloud storage. Given that information stored in the cloud can be accessed from just about anywhere in the world.
The technical boundaries are still quite blurry, which in turn makes the legal boundaries blurry as well. This has to improve as lawmakers work round the clock to get solutions. Before then, here are some legalities are surrounding cloud storage, and their contribution in making your data safe and secure.
The Contract Should Be Clear on Who Owns Your Data
The contract must indicate that you own whatever data you upload to the cloud. This will give you the right to access your data as well as to transfer it if the cloud provider goes bankrupt or terminates the business for whatever reason. The contract should also have a notice provision that requires the service provider to serve you with a notice days before declaring insolvency. This will give you enough time to transfer your data to a more reliable provider.
The Service Agreement Should Stipulate How the Service Provider Will Respond to a Subpoena
The service agreement should indicate what the service provider should do when served with a civil discovery request or a subpoena. Being the owner of the data, you must be notified each time that your data gets subpoenaed. However, you should still have it in writing to avoid any legal loopholes. Some cloud providers include a policy of not disclosing personal information. You should confirm that this is the case for your cloud provider before you sign the contract.
The Provider Should Guarantee Up-Time and Make Data Backups
The contract should include how often the cloud service provider should backup your data and where the backups should be kept. It may not be quite beneficial if the backups are on the same server chain as the primary data. As much as the provider may be liable for damages in case of data loss, recovering the data will not be possible.