Controlling the Clouds: Privacy Laws and Cloud Computing in Canada‘s Legal Sector
Keywords:
Information Policy, Cloud Computing, Legal IndustryAbstract
This paper examines both the promises and problems posed by the legal profession‘s adoption of cloud computing platforms in service of its business objectives. Cloud computing models, defined as third party managed software, are rapidly becoming ubiquitous within technology-centric businesses. The legal profession is ostensibly an excellent candidate for the integration of cloud computing models due to its deep-seated information management needs. Nonetheless, this profession finds itself within an unnerving position in the face of government-mandated privacy laws and professional ethical standards that make any compromise of private information potentially devastating to a wide reaching net of stakeholders. Exploring the tenuous line upon which the legal profession treads in relation to cloud computing, the author ultimately concludes that what is most conspicuously absent within this current debate is a developed information policy which would provide the legal industry directives on how it should negotiate its way through this complex issue.
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