Cloud computing - New report for the European Parliament warned of political surveillance on foreigner's data

(c) photo: freedigitalphotos.net

How safe is Cloud Computing? Researchers warned of political surveillance on foreigners’ data in a new report produced for the European Parliament: U.S. public authorities, perhaps unsurprisingly, have continually rejected claims of mass snooping on Europeans' data if it is stored using U.S. cloud services like those provided by Google, Microsoft and Facebook.

According to the study “Fighting Cyber Crime and Protecting Privacy in the Cloud”, produced by the Centre for the Study of Conflicts, Liberty and Security, the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Amendments Act (FISAA) poses a “much graver risk to EU data sovereignty than other laws hitherto considered by EU policy-makers.” Late last month, the FISAA was renewed through 2017.

William Kennard, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, has continually rejected claims of mass snooping on Europeans. In a speech last year, he said that all law enforcement and national security investigations in the United States are subject to legal and judicial constraints designed to protect individual privacy.

But in Europe, serious skepticism remains.

The researchers initiate: It could be possible that until 2020, at least fifty percent of the EU-Devices will be under control of the European Union. Now, certainly, it seems unavoidable that Europe’s policymakers will eventually have to face up to questions over U.S. snooping, no matter how controversial.

Author: Andreas Weitzell - Trainee Charlotte Office