Cloud Law to Assess Privacy, Liability Concerns for Enterprises in Europe

A new conference, Cloud Law to be held in London 25 November will address key concerns for enterprises contending with liability, cyber-security, the implications of new privacy legislation from the European Commission, and the US Patriot Act.

The conference asks who regulates the cloud? In an era when terabytes of data have become the norm, enterprises are keen to learn who is responsible for the governance and operation of big data in the cloud. In order to harness the full potential of cloud services, enterprises must be aware of data sovereignty challenges given the enormous variation in governance and legislation across Europe alone.

“Cloud Law for Europe is a Pandora’s box,” commented Adonis Adoni, Cloud Research Manager at BroadGroup, the consulting firm organising the conference. “We have a mix of often conflicting legislation to manage as international businesses. The recent decision by US courts ordering Microsoft to hand over data held in its Irish datacentre has caused further surprise. The big question with cloud is how to create legal certainty for enterprises?”

Key questions the conference will seek to address include: what does the right of privacy entail for enterprises and how is being entrenched into the legal framework of the EU? What are the true implications of the US Patriot Act? What are the responsibilities of cloud vendors with regard to liability for hosted content? Understanding how the concept of liability works within the cloud environment is imperative to any enterprise seeking to adopt cloud services.

The conference will also look at the challenge of cyber-attacks, which are severely detrimental to companies using cloud services. Learn what cyber security measures can be implemented to minimise this hazard and what obligations do cloud providers have in notifying their clients when such incidents occur.

With a programme designed to provide a proactive, solution-oriented approach to the legal and regulatory challenges cloud presents for enterprises, the new annual conference could actively drive policy change. Debate will be geared towards delivering possible solutions to current legal and regulatory blockers.

Speakers include both legal experts and general counsel in enterprises and include Ian Walden, Professor of Information and Communications Law, Queen Mary, University of London, Paolo Balboni, Scientific Director, European Privacy Association, Neil Brown, Senior Regulatory Lawyer, Vodafone and Bojana Bellamy, President, Centre for Information Policy Leadership, Hunton & Williams LLP among others.