Facing Risks and Building Trust:
Grid and Cloud Adopters and Providers from a
Legal Perspective
Davide M. Parrilli
ICRI – K.U. Leuven – IBBT
time.lex Brussels
[email protected]
Introdution
Lawyer: a person who is very
good in indicating problems and
who is very bad in proposing
solutions to these problems.
Often true, but not always – but in
this presentation we’ll talk about
open issues without solution
(yet). Need for open discussion
between scientists, practitioners
and policymakers.
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Risks and Trust (I)
Grid and Cloud computing are not riskless, mainly due
to its transnational nature:
•User, service provider and technology provider may be
established in different countries;
•Hardware resources (datacenters) may be dispersed in
different countries.
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Risks and Trust (II)
In pure national scenarios (all previous elements in one
country) there are of course less issues and problems
– one set of laws applies with no potential conflicts.
But still some issues arise: e.g. liability for not-delivery
of the services, damages for security failures – are
courts able to solve these disputes??
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Risks and Trust (III)
Users: consumers and businesses.
Consumer: who uses the Grid or
Cloud (and/or the services provided
in a Grid or Cloud environment)
purely for personal purposes –
professional use is excluded!
Consumers are more protected by
applicable laws and by courts: the SLAs
with them cannot be too unbalanced in
favor of the provider.
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Risks and Trust (IV)
Businesses are basically not
protected.
Tips: as end user, read always first
the SLA!
The same applies when service
providers buy Grid/Cloud services
from a technology provider.
Usually the technology provider
will shift risks and liabilities to the
service provider and the latter will
shift them to the end user.
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Risks and Trust (V)
Critical issues: security and liability – if the SLA does
not face and solve them adequately it is difficult to
build trust towards service and technology providers.
What to do? Industry itself should realize that better
contracts are in the interest of everybody – it doesn’t
mean less profit bur rather more investments!
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Google’s powers (I)
A step further: what are big service and technology
providers becoming?
I.e.: some of the companies that use and develop Grid
and Cloud computing are acquiring a huge economic
and social power – the Google case.
Should we be afraid of this phenomenon?
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Google’s power (II)
What is Google?
A.A company providing
services, technology,
information, etc etc.
B.A new country without
atomic bombs but very
powerful;
C.A new God.
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Google’s power (III)
The right answer is…no
idea!
Google has an impact on
the way people think,
operate, work and live. It
generates and affects the
knowledge and the
information that people
have.
Quid from the legal point of
view?
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Google’s power (IV)
For the very fact that Google operates at
global level, it is subject to a huge amount
of laws and regulations.
Google can (reasonably?) think
that it is above the law – btw,
all lawyers use Google to find
laws and decisions…
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Google’s power (V)
Case: Criminal investigation in Milan,
Italy – the prosecutor ask Google to
disclose data relating to access of
Gmail accounts by Google’s clients.
Answer: no way! The management of
Google decides what data (and to
whom) can be disclosed, even when the
life and safety of people are in danger.
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Google’s power (VI)
Behavior to criticize: the laws are supposed to
protect the interests of the collectivity, especially
when a criminal investigation and trial are
involved.
Laws (should) follow a democratic process;
Google’s decision not.
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Google’s power (VII)
But…respecting all applicable laws for
Google is a huge cost and often it is
simply not possible.
E.g.: Italian law sets forth certain
obligations about retention of users’
data – other laws may set different
rules . Which rules shall Google
follow??
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Google’s power (VIII)
Possible answers:
• The law of the country of incorporation of
the company shall be always applicable: not
implementable (incorporation in ‘law
heavens’);
• The law of the country where the Cloud
components are located shall be always
applicable: not implementable (and not
accepted by E-Commerce Directive);
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Google’s power (IX)
• The law of the country of the recipient of the
services or where the services are enjoyed
applies: probably the best solution (but in
the EU, e.g. in the banking and financial
sector, ‘home state’ principle applies –
possible in geographical areas with
harmonized rules or similar standards).
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Google’s power (X)
Solutions: harmonization at global level of rules that
apply to transnational providers of information –
rules for traditional media are not applicable!
There is no unique place where the content is
created and stored, and there are many place
where access to the content takes place.
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Google’s power (XI)
Similar (and very important)
issue: taxation.
All countries would probably like
to tax locally the profits
generated by Google as much
as possible.
Problem: how is it possible to
calculate the profits generated
by Google country per
country?
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Google’s power (XII)
Risk to tax the profits arising from
the services supplied via Cloud
infrastructures many times (in all
countries where Cloud
components are located) or never
(thanks to a careful tax planning
policy).
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Conclusions (I)
Grid/Cloud computing and the supply of everything as a
service (including knowledge and information) is
changing the business reality and the mentality of
people. The effects of the Grid/Cloud technology, and
the way it is deployed, are huge and cannot simply be
analyzed and approached with traditional
instruments.
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Conclusions (II)
Do we live in a world without borders? Sometimes yes,
and Grid/Cloud computing is a perfect example – but
laws and standards are still based on borders.
(Btw, Google knows borders too – those imposed by
China. Maybe is Google weak with the strong and
strong with the weak?)
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THANK YOU
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