Legal issues for information professionals X: Legal issues associated with cloud computing

This article identifies some legal problems that can arise in the use of cloud computing services. Despite the exciting opportunities that cloud computing offers to individuals and organizations, care must be taken not to minimize potential legal problems. These potential problems and possible ways forward are identified. Readers are strongly urged to negotiate carefully any contracts offered by cloud computer services, and not to accept them as is, because, without detailed scrutiny, they may well be breaking the law and are certainly taking significant risks with the information they provide to the cloud service.