SafeGov.org and Ponemon Institute study shows UK schools moving rapidly to adopt Cloud Computing, but overwhelmingly reject business models that allow cloud providers to mine student data for profit.

A new report by an Internet industry forum has shed some interesting light on the use by schools of Cloud computing services for their students. While concluding that there has been a rapid acceleration in take-up of these services the report highlights a number key privacy concerns surrounding the practice.

Cloud computing allows dramatic flexibility in information processing—and on a global basis. Its technology permits data transmissions that span the globe. Computing activities now shift from country-to-country depending on load capacity, time of day, and a variety of other factors. These decisions are sometimes made in real time and by machines rather than humans.

Destinations such as Singapore, Malaysia or Hong Kong need to seize the opportunity of being deemed an acceptable data transfer partner with the European Union in order to get ahead of the competition.

Government departments will have to look at cloud options first before opting to use other technologies under a new 'public cloud-first' strategy unveiled today by the Cabinet Office.

Adoption of cloud services by UK government bodies grew sharply in March, with sales through the public sector's CloudStore portal during the month reaching more than half that of the entire year before.

On April 12, 2013, the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (“ITA”) issued a guidance document to clarify how the U.S.-European Union Safe Harbor Framework facilitates the transfer of personal data from the European Union to the United States in the cloud computing context. The document underscores that the U.S.- European Union Safe Harbor Framework is an officially recognized means of complying with the adequacy requirement of EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. ITA has received a number of inquiries from Safe Harbor participants indicating that they (and their EU clients, customers and partners) have heard conflicting information and are unsure about how the Safe Harbor Framework may enable data transfers to cloud service providers in the United States.

Are Google's March 2012 privacy policy changes legal? This is a question that the European data protection authorities have been working on since Google first announced its intention to change its privacy policies in January 2012. Soon after the announcement, France asked European data protection authorities to open an inquiry into the matter. In addition, U.S. Representative Edward Markey announced his intention to ask the FTC whether Google's privacy policy changes were also legal in the United States.

European Union regulators have taken their first step to making good on their recent threat to take “repressive action” against Google by summer.

To improve data protection in the public sector, government agencies must pursue more proactive action in coordination with internet and cloud services providers.