Privacy in Cloud: Could Google be barred from offering Cloud Computing services?

In a complaint filed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center faults Google’s practices relating to its so-called cloud computing services, which store user-generated documents and other personal information on Google servers instead of on an individual’s personal computer.

The Washington, D.C.-based group, which focuses on civil liberties and privacy issues, also asked the FTC to bar Google from offering cloud computing services until the company has put certain safeguards in place.

A Google spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

On March 7, Google said a bug in online productivity software, Google Docs, caused a small percentage of users to inadvertently share their personal documents with other users. The bug, which has since been fixed, affected 0.05 percent of all documents and was limited to people who had previously shared online documents with others, according to Google.

“The Google Docs data breach highlights the hazards of Google’s inadequate security practices, as well as the risks of cloud computing services generally,” said EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg in a statement.

He added that there was “ample” precedent for the FTC to begin an investigation.

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