Data Privacy and Compliance Issues in Cloud Computing: Legal and Regulatory Perspectives

Authors

  • Satyanarayan Kanungo

Keywords:

cloud computing; data privacy; GDPR; CCPA; HIPAA; shared responsibility; data localization; confidential computing

Abstract

Cloud computing has revolutionized how organizations store, process and share data. However, the use of cloud services introduces complex data privacy and compliance challenges from legal and regulatory standpoints. This paper explores the key data protection laws and regulations impacting cloud computing, including the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and industry-specific requirements like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). It examines the shared responsibility model between cloud providers and customers, jurisdictional considerations, international data transfers, vendor management, incident response obligations, and auditing/monitoring of cloud environments. The paper also discusses evolving trends such as the increased focus on data localization laws and the growing adoption of secure enclaves and confidential computing. Finally, it provides recommendations for organizations to navigate this complex landscape through robust governance frameworks, risk assessments, contractual safeguards with cloud service providers, and transparency with end-users. Effectively addressing data privacy and compliance issues is essential for organizations to reap the benefits of cloud computing while protecting sensitive information and upholding their legal and ethical duties.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud End-User Spending to Reach Nearly $600 Billion in 2023. (2022, October 31). Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022-10-31-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-public-cloud-end-user-spending-to-reach-nearly-600-billion-in-2023

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), art. 83, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.155.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), art. 4(1), 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), art. 5, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), arts. 12-23, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), art. 6, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), recital 32, art. 7, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), art. 9, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

European Data Protection Board. (2021). Guidelines 07/2020 on the concepts of controller and processor in the GDPR. https://edpb.europa.eu/our-work-tools/our-documents/guidelines/guidelines-072020-concepts-controller-and-processor-gdpr_en

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), arts. 44-50, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), arts. 33-34, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), art. 35, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.140(c).

Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1798.100, 1798.105, 1798.110, 1798.115, 1798.120, 1798.125.

Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.140(o).

Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.100(b).

Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.110(a).

Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.110(b).

Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.140(t)(1).

Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.185(a).

Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1798.100(a)(1), 1798.121, 1798.199.10.

45 C.F.R. § 160.103 (2022).

45 C.F.R. § 160.103 (2022).

45 C.F.R. §§ 164.502-164.514 (2022).

45 C.F.R. §§ 164.302-164.318 (2022).

45 C.F.R. § 160.103 (2022).

45 C.F.R. § 164.504(e) (2022).

45 C.F.R. § 164.314(a) (2022).

45 C.F.R. § 164.314(a)(2)(i)(B) (2022).

45 C.F.R. § 164.314(a)(2)(i)(C) (2022).

45 C.F.R. § 164.504(e)(2)(ii)(H) (2022).

HHS.gov. (2022, March 7). Resolution Agreements. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/compliance-enforcement/agreements/index.html

PCI Security Standards Council. (n.d.). About Us. https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/about_us/

PCI Security Standards Council. (2022). Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard v4.0. https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/documents/PCI_DSS-v4_0.pdf

PCI Security Standards Council. (2018). Information Supplement: PCI SSC Cloud Computing Guidelines v3.0. https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/PCI_SSC_Cloud_Guidelines_v3.pdf

CLOUD Act, H.R. 4943, 115th Cong. (2018).

Daskal, J. (2019). Microsoft Ireland, the CLOUD Act, and International Lawmaking 2.0. Stan. L. Rev. Online, 71, 9.

European Commission. (n.d.). Adequacy decisions. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/international-dimension-data-protection/adequacy-decisions_en

European Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/914 of 4 June 2021 on standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to third countries pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council, 2021 O.J. (L 199) 31.

European Data Protection Board. (2022). Guidelines 1/2022 on the application of Article 60 GDPR. https://edpb.europa.eu/our-work-tools/documents/public-consultations/2022/guidelines-12022-application-article-60-gdpr_en

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), art. 49, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

Case C-311/18, Data Prot. Comm'r v. Facebook Ireland Ltd. & Maximillian Schrems, ECLI:EU:C:2020:559 (July 16, 2020).

European Data Protection Board. (2020). Recommendations 01/2020 on measures that supplement transfer tools to ensure compliance with the EU level of protection of personal data. https://edpb.europa.eu/our-work-tools/our-documents/recommendations/recommendations-012020-measures-supplement-transfer_en

Cloud Security Alliance. (2021). Top Threats to Cloud Computing: The Egregious Eleven. https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/artifacts/top-threats-to-cloud-computing-egregious-eleven/

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2016). Guidance on HIPAA & Cloud Computing. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/cloud-computing/index.html

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), art. 28, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

Cloud Security Alliance. (n.d.). CSA STAR Program & Open Certification Framework. https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/star/

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), arts. 33-34, 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

45 C.F.R. §§ 164.400-164.414 (2022).

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), art. 33(1), 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), art. 34(1), 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), art. 33(3), 2016 O.J. (L 119) 1.

45 C.F.R. § 164.404 (2022).

Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.82.

23 NYCRR 500.17 (2017).

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Pub. L. No. 106-102, 113 Stat. 1338 (1999).

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. (n.d.). SOC for Service Organizations. https://www.aicpa.org/interestareas/frc/assuranceadvisoryservices/socforserviceorganizations.html

International Organization for Standardization. (2015). ISO/IEC 27017:2015 Information technology — Security techniques — Code of practice for information security controls based on ISO/IEC 27002 for cloud services. https://www.iso.org/standard/43757.html

Cloud Security Alliance. (n.d.). Security Trust Assurance and Risk (STAR). https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/star/

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. (2017). TSP Section 100: 2017 Trust Services Criteria for Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy. https://us.aicpa.org/content/dam/aicpa/interestareas/frc/assuranceadvisoryservices/downloadabledocuments/trust-services-criteria.pdf

Gartner. (n.d.). Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/security-information-and-event-management-siem

Cloud Security Alliance. (n.d.). Cloud Security Posture Management. https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/cloud-security-posture-management/

National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2020). NIST Special Publication 800-53 Revision 5: Security and Privacy Controls for Information Systems and Organizations. https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-53/rev-5/final

Center for Internet Security. (n.d.). CIS Critical Security Controls. https://www.cisecurity.org/controls/

Gartner. (n.d.). Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR). https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/endpoint-detection-and-response-edr

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2021). Data Protection and Privacy Legislation Worldwide. https://unctad.org/page/data-protection-and-privacy-legislation-worldwide

Confidential Computing Consortium. (n.d.). Confidential Computing: Hardware-Based Trusted Execution for Applications and Data. https://confidentialcomputing.io/white-papers/

Cloud Security Alliance. (2021). Confidential Computing and the Cloud. https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/artifacts/confidential-computing-and-the-cloud/

Göttel, C., Pires, R., Rocha, I., Vaucher, S., Felber, P., Pasin, M., & Schiavoni, V. (2018). Security, performance and energy trade-offs of hardware-assisted memory protection mechanisms. In 2018 IEEE 37th Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems (SRDS) (pp. 133-142). IEEE.

Madasu, R. "Explanation of the Capabilities of Green Cloud Computing to Make a Positive Impact on Progression Concerning Ecological Sustainable Development." Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Bulletin 2, no. 2 (2023): 5-11.

Srivastav and S. Mandal, "Radars for Autonomous Driving: A Review of Deep Learning Methods and Challenges," in IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 97147-97168, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3312382.

Satish, Karuturi S R V, and M Swamy Das. "Quantum Leap in Cluster Efficiency by Analyzing Cost-Benefits in Cloud Computing." In Computer Science and Engineering by Auroras Scientific Technological & Research Academy Hyderabad, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 58-71. Accessed 2018. https://www.ijsr.in/article-description.php?id=ZU9rWnA5d3R1Q1dzK2tLSTNTbDRZZz09

Downloads

Published

13.04.2024

How to Cite

Kanungo, S. . (2024). Data Privacy and Compliance Issues in Cloud Computing: Legal and Regulatory Perspectives. International Journal of Intelligent Systems and Applications in Engineering, 12(21s), 1721–1734. Retrieved from https://ijisae.org/index.php/IJISAE/article/view/5710

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 21s (2024)

Section

Research Article

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

All papers should be submitted electronically. All submitted manuscripts must be original work that is not under submission at another journal or under consideration for publication in another form, such as a monograph or chapter of a book. Authors of submitted papers are obligated not to submit their paper for publication elsewhere until an editorial decision is rendered on their submission. Further, authors of accepted papers are prohibited from publishing the results in other publications that appear before the paper is published in the Journal unless they receive approval for doing so from the Editor-In-Chief.

IJISAE open access articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This license lets the audience to give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made and if they remix, transform, or build upon the material, they must distribute contributions under the same license as the original.