FTC to look into security and privacy of cloud computing

America’s Federal Trade Commission will hold a roundtable discussion later this month on the privacy and security of cloud computing. Social networking and mobile computing will also be covered.

David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, stated in a letter to the government agency:

…the ability of cloud computing services to collect and centrally store increasing amounts of consumer data, combined with the ease with which such centrally stored data may be shared with others, create a risk that larger amounts of data may be used by entities in ways not originally intended or understood by consumers.

The discussion is slated for January 28. The security and reliability of cloud computing have been under consumer scrutiny for some time. The FTC is also concerned about the wide amount of data social networking sites have access to and how it might pose a threat to consumer privacy.

Source | Data Center Knowledge