Cloud computing has become one of the ruling strategies of the future. Just as it has become totally absurd for companies to store their data on printed paper when computer hard drives are available for so little with the capability to store the data in a much more secure manner, in less space, and a more easily accessible manner, so to has the era of storing electronic data locally come to its end. For users, who wouldn’t want all of their data to constantly be available at the touch of a finger? I absolutely love being able to switch off texts and internet tabs between my Apple devices, being able to continue shows where I left off from my iPad to my television, and being able to see all of my emails and important documents on my computer or phone. This has become the norm and is what users want for conveniency.
Unfortunately, because cloud computing comes in so many varieties and is a new and vulnerable technology, it also leads to insecure data. The sad truth is that currently nothing that is in the cloud is completely safe. Whether it be from physical attacks destroying servers or (more likely) hacking and security holes in the system, all data put into the cloud can be lost or seen by other parties. I think that this lack of security is where the ethical concerns about using cloud computing come into play. While I see no problem storing my data on it and would happily volunteer for most of my data to be stored on the cloud, it would be irresponsible for me to store other’s info in an insecure manner without their permission. This information can be stolen much more easily in a Cloud-based environment and therefore the users should be warned of the risks and asked if they would rather have extra convenience or security. I suspect that it largely is based upon the application at hand. Financial information, for example, while it is nice to have it at the ready on all devices, is dangerous if taken is should therefore not be willing to compromise security to convenience. For most applications, I believe that the Cloud is the right solution.
Using cloud computing offers a ton of advantages such as speed, monetary savings, convenience, and cheap security of information in terms of redundancy. At the same time, it takes some implementation options away from you and brings a lot of security risks into play. Using cloud services can also put a developer at the mercy of their provider, who could have a system failure or sudden change of policy that you will have to deal with and receive the blame for if it results in a failure or poor performance for your system or application. I think that these same advantages and disadvantages hold true for the consumer. The Cloud offers savings, speed, convenience, and more copies of data in case of failure at the price of reliability and security. To me, the tradeoffs are worth it. I hardly consider cloud computing an ethical question. I think that it is the technology of the future and as it improves, more and more information will live in the cloud.
Luke's ethics blog 