Legal Concerns and Challenges in Cloud Computing

Abstract: Legal issues have risen with the changing landscape of computing, especially when the service, data and infrastructure is not owned by the user. With the Cloud, the question arises as to who is in the possession of the data. The Cloud provider can be considered as a legal custodian, owner or possessor of the data thereby causing complexities in legal matters around trademark infringement, privacy of users and their data, abuse and security. By introducing Cloud design focusing on privacy, legal as a service on a Cloud and service provider accountability, users can expect the service providers to be accountable for privacy and data in addition to their regular SLAs.