EU Privacy Laws not taken seriously in the US.

In the world we live in we are forever encouraged to use clouds to store our data, but how safe is it? We are often asked to balance up between ease of use and privacy, with many people simply closing there eyes to what actually happens especially when using major suppliers in particular from the United States.

There ‘culture of surveillance’ has recently been pushed back by the EU. US cloud firms like Microsoft are already regularly shown to flaunt European privacy laws, as was shown again recently by the Dutch Government exposing dozens of GDPR violations.(see article) Yet they continue to be a go to for most people even though the US potentially has access to very sensitive information, which could and does give them an advantage in the Global market. We as users seem to not worry about this as we think realistically what could they do with that data. We should be concerned and we shouldn’t blindly sign away our rights when ever we are asked to by a web page that makes it awkward to say yes to privacy. Imagine always knowing how your competitors are doing, how much they charge, who there suppliers are? This is only a small taste of what that information could be used for. It’s time to ensure your data is safe, these major companies have made a considerable amount of money while flouting the local laws of the land. We need to return to the time when we stored and backed up our own data, although it can be slightly more expensive there is a peace of mind that comes from knowing you ‘own your own data’. Consider why they make it so cost effective for you to store your data with them.

When working with clouds we always recommend, for your protection and privacy, a cloud system where the data is yours and it is stored on your own system within the walls of your business giving you full control to only allow access to the people you want to, but although we can recommend it all to often it’s not the way some people want to go. Stay safe and consider what your data could be used for, the answer may surprise you.