By Cloud Computing SpunjePublished: November 7, 2009Posted in: Apps, Case Studies & Tutorials, Cloud Solutions, Google, YahooTags: 
A reader sends in a link to this recent post by law professor Orin Kerr, on a ruling about how 4th Amendment protections against “unreasonable search and seizure” apply to email. The central question is whether the government needs to inform individual email users when their messages are seized and read — or whether it is sufficient to notify their internet service provider or mail service, like Google or Yahoo. According to the logic of the ruling, by the sheer act of sending email, a user has transferred custody of the messages to a third party. Thus notifying the third party — Google, Yahoo, et al — is enough, with the sender left in the dark.
As that post describes, the legal comparison-drawing goes in many directions. Is “giving” an email to Yahoo like putting a package in a public storage locker? Is it like putting an envelope in a regular mailbox? Does it matter if the message is encrypted? Etc. But the reader’s point is less about the ins and outs of this ruling than about the broader legal/privacy implications of storing information “in the cloud.” When you’re working in Google Docs, as opposed to using a spreadsheet or document that lives on your computer, have you essentially surrendered custody and control of that information? What if you rely on online “cloud” systems –
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/11/are_we_naked_in_the.php
“My concern about such matters is one big reason I do not rely much on “cloud” services of which you are so fond. It’s not that I have much about myself that is all that interesting to third parties”
A reader sends in a link to this recent post by law professor Orin Kerr, on a ruling about how 4th Amendment protections against “unreasonable search and seizure” apply to email. The central question is whether the government needs to inform individual email users when their messages are seized and read — or whether it is sufficient to notify their internet service provider or mail service, like Google or Yahoo. According to the logic of the ruling, by the sheer act of sending email, a user has transferred custody of the messages to a third party. Thus notifying the third party — Google, Yahoo, et al — is enough, with the sender left in the dark.
As that post describes, the legal comparison-drawing goes in many directions. Is “giving” an email to Yahoo like putting a package in a public storage locker? Is it like putting an envelope in a regular mailbox? Does it matter if the message is encrypted? Etc. But the reader’s point is less about the ins and outs of this ruling than about the broader legal/privacy implications of storing information “in the cloud.” When you’re working in Google Docs, as opposed to using a spreadsheet or document that lives on your computer, have you essentially surrendered custody and control of that information? What if you rely on online “cloud” systems –
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/11/are_we_naked_in_the.php
“My concern about such matters is one big reason I do not rely much on “cloud” services of which you are so fond. It’s not that I have much about myself that is all that interesting to third parties”
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