Digital evidence and ‘cloud’ computing

The term ‘cloud computing’ has begun to enter the lexicon of the legal world. The term is not new, but the implications for obtaining and retaining evidence in electronic format for the resolution of civil disputes and the prosecution of alleged criminal activities might be significantly affected in the future by ‘cloud’ computing. This article is an exploratory essay in assessing the effect that ‘cloud’ computing might have on evidence in digital format in criminal proceedings in the jurisdiction of England & Wales.     

The necessity of legally compliant data management in European cloud architectures

Taking advantage of flexible resource provisions enabled by Cloud Computing, many businesses have recently migrated their IT applications and data to the Cloud, allowing them to respond to new demands and requests from customers. However, Cloud Computing also moves functions and responsibilities away from local ownership and management to a third-party provided service, and brings with it a set of associated legal issues, such as data protection, licensing, intellectual property rights and the need to comply to necessary regulation. In this paper we evaluate commonly-observed Cloud Computing use cases against the law applying to Cloud Computing to find where legal problems may arise. We derive a general architecture for Clouds and use it to illustrate common Cloud Computing usage patterns. The use cases are assessed against evaluation criteria derived from the relevant Cloud Computing law for the data processing of end-user details and materials, including roles and responsibilities necessary for legal compliance. The Data Protection Directive of the European Union has been used in this evaluation, as it is a commonly accepted and influential directive in the field of data processing legislation.     

A walk in to the cloud and cloudy it remains: The challenges and prospects of ‘processing’ and ‘transferring’ personal data

Cloud computing is an information technology technique that promises greater efficiency and reduced-cost to consumers, businesses and public institutions. However, to the extent it has brought better efficiency and minimal cost, the emergence of cloud computing has posed a significant regulatory challenge on the application of data protection rules particularly on the regime regulating cross-border data flow. The Data Protection Directive (DPD), which dates back to 1995, is at odds with some of the basic technological and business-related features of the cloud. As a result, it is claimed that the Directive hardly offers any help in using the legal bases to ‘process’ and ‘transfer’ data as well as to determine when a transfer to a third country occurs in cloud computing. Despite such assertions, the paper argues that the ECJ's Bodil Lindqvist decision can to a certain extent help to delineate circumstances where transfer should and should not occur in the cloud. Concomitantly, the paper demonstrates that controllers can still make the most of the available possibilities in justifying their ‘processing’ as well as ‘transferring’ of data to a third country in cloud arrangements. In doing so, the paper also portrays the challenges that arise down the road. All legal perspectives are largely drawn from EU level though examples are given from member states and other jurisdictions when relevant.     

Impact of disruptive technologies on sourcing and outsourcing transactions

The sourcing and outsourcing markets are being challenged by the simultaneous impacts of a number of new technologies and delivery mechanisms; this article addresses the impacts being felt by the market participants and the contractual structures they seek to put in place as a result.     

我国国有企业产权制度改革的思考

随着市场化改革的推进，我国政府加快了国有企业产权制度改革的步伐，越来越多的国有企业被纳入民营化的序列，产权结构多元化的格局基本形成，但从目前产权制度改革的实践来看，远未达到预期目的，国有企业产权制度改革要实现实质性突破，必须转变观念，从价值形态上认识存量资产的优势，借存量的调整和优化，实现资产由存量向增量的跨越，确保国有企业产权制度改革达到预期目的。     

“云”集多彩贵州——开启统战工作新篇章

针对传统的统战工作模式老旧、效率不高,不能系统地、有效地利用新的信息技术平台问题,就目前贵州大数据产业发展的黄金时期,提出以"云上贵州"系统平台为依托,建设贵州统战智库,详细阐述六类统战成员各自的特征,借此夯实完善统战队伍人才建设;并运用"云上贵州"搭建四个统战成员平台,创新统战工作的服务方式,以便更好地推动统战工作稳步持续发展,开启统战工作新篇章。