Technology companies lobby EU to revise privacy laws to promote cloud computing

Foreign media today published an analysis of the obstacles faced by American technology companies in promoting cloud computing in the European Union. The following is the full text of the article:

Broken market hinders cloud computing development

Microsoft, Google and other U.S. technology giants are pushing the EU to consolidate privacy rules to provide the EU with more remote computing and data storage services.

The companies have invested heavily in building large data centers in Europe, hoping to set up a unified cloud-computing service in 27 countries. It also wants to sell computing power and storage space to 500 million of EU users, which can store everything from family photos to medical records.

Deadline for EU countries to allow the retention of user data (units: Month)

"The fragmented laws of the EU may hinder or delay our sales," said Mike Hintze, a senior Microsoft lawyer, Mack Hentz. This is both our problem and the problem that other cloud service providers face. ”

Some European governments are wary of private companies, especially American companies, who are unwilling to let them control so many of their citizens ' data, and therefore oppose the creation of uniform rules in the European Union. In this respect, Germany has been the toughest, saying it has the right to impose stringent national standards.

"For Europe, the importance of privacy cannot be measured by money," said Olivier Midière, president of the French Digital Economic Association (Olivier Mittier). "The association is made up of French small and medium technology companies to oppose Cross-border data storage and lobby the French government for this."

Efforts to establish uniform legislation

The EU now has many conflicting cloud-computing laws that could change. Some members of the European Commission are advocating the digital agenda (Digital Agenda) plan, which aims to enact 31 regulations covering broadband infrastructure and pirated music and software.

But the work began only May this year and the preliminary legal text will be completed this fall. Matthew Newman, a European Union spokesman, said it was too early to judge whether the relevant laws had pan-European authority over cloud computing and privacy issues.

At present, many companies, hospitals, and local and national governments have begun to abandon mainframe computers and outsource computing services. As a result, EU laws may affect previous investments in the field. Last year, Microsoft set up a 500 million dollar data center in Dublin, the second Microsoft Data Center in Europe and the other in Amsterdam. And Google in Europe has been built or under construction of 12 data centers.

People have different assessments of the size of the cloud market. Gartner, the US market research firm, thinks the market for cloud computing will reach $14 billion trillion by 2013, and Merrill Lynch believes the market can be as large as $100 billion trillion.

At present, in terms of data protection and retention, EU countries have different rules. Germany, for example, requires that all data be stored in the territory. American companies say they can comply with the rules.

The rules vary widely for companies to keep temporary internet data such as search keywords. According to data collected by the Wall Street Journal commissioned by the European Commission, 14 EU countries require data to be destroyed within 12 months. There are 8 states for 6 months, 4 for 24 months, and 1 for 18 months (Latvia). However, for an enterprise that stores data in Germany in Hungary, it is difficult to determine which country's laws apply. The time limit for data retention in Germany is 6 months, while the Hungarian requirement is 12 months.

Tech giants start fighting back

"In terms of cloud computing, the concept of a unified market has not been established," Jean-philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, Jean Fili Goodward, said recently in an interview. We hope that by 2012 the EU will have a basic framework to ensure a unified market. ”

Small Internet companies are also concerned about Europe's fragmented cloud-computing market. "In Europe, cloud computing faces both psychological and regulatory barriers," says Ivan Farneti, a Ivan Fanedi who invests in internet start-ups. ”

In France, Mittier's Small Business association is lobbying the French government to establish a regional cloud computing facility in France through billions of of dollars in subsidies. Mittier said companies such as Microsoft could offer services to French local governments and small businesses through competitive bidding, but must store data in local infrastructure.

Goodward of Microsoft says the zoning violates the purpose of cloud computing because it is designed to harness the power of international networks.

However, technology companies have responded by saying they understand European concerns. For example, Google, which admitted two months ago to collect privacy data from Wi-Fi networks in Europe and elsewhere, recently launched an ad saying that Gmail and other service users could remove data from the cloud using a new feature.