Many companies are abdicating all responsibility for the customer data being held in the cloud, according to the data watchdog, which fears that confidential information is being left ‘out of sight, out of mind’.
Consumers are also uneasy, with a recent YouGov survey revealing that 46% of UK adults online who use cloud storage are concerned about the security of their information in cloud storage.
These fears have led the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to publish a raft of new guidelines to businesses to underline that firms remain responsible for how personal data is looked after, even if they pass it to cloud network providers.
Speaking as the guide was launched, author Dr Simon Rice, ICO technology policy advisor, said: “The law on outsourcing data is very clear. As a business, you are responsible for keeping your data safe. You can outsource some of the processing of that data, as happens with cloud computing, but how that data is used and protected remains your responsibility.
“It would be naïve for an organisation to take the attitude that these guidelines are too much effort to simply store some data in a different place. Where personal information is involved, the stakes are high and the ICO has already demonstrated it will act firmly against those who don’t meet data protection laws.”
The ICO recently issued a monetary penalty of £250,000 to Scottish Borders Council, after it failed to properly manage a company it had employed to digitise pension records. The council did not have a contract with the contractor, and hadn’t made the necessary security checks.
Rice added: “Figures show that consumers are concerned about how secure their data is when they use cloud storage themselves. It takes little imagination to consider that businesses not reflecting those concerns will quickly find themselves losing customers’ good will.”
