Battle over cloud systems and user privacy looms

The controversy involving the National Security Agency's PRISM program has prompted some European entities to warn companies to avoid U.S. service vendors. However, David Linthicum writes that the real battle of privacy in relation to the cloud hasn't even begun. "The reality is that people who [work] with cloud-based platforms won't stop using those platforms -- but they will get much better at security and privacy. With such improvements in security and privacy, law enforcement and government agencies won't have ready access to some data. That means legal battles will occur in many countries, with the use of remote data hosting services, such as cloud services, in the middle," he writes.