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CYBER SECURITY by Heather Phillips
Free Cloud Storage - is it really?
What about those free gigabytes of others, as well as things like the size facilities throughout the world, they
cloud storage that so many vendors of the file, the time it was uploaded, have to disclose they cannot protect the
provide? Should users really trust the collaborators, and usage activity.” confidentiality of data transfer in their
security of those offers? What does the statement, “We transfer personal data
vendor get out of providing it? When you read further into their from the European Economic Area, the
privacy statement, you find they share United Kingdom, and Switzerland to
First and foremost, one must the user’s information with their trusted other countries, some of which have not
understand that nothing is given to third parties: Amazon Web Services, yet been determined by the European
you for free. The user is trading their Inc., Teleperformance A.E., Salesforce. Commission to have an adequate level
data and personal information for the com, LLC, Serenova, LLC (formerly of data protection.”
convenience of online storage space. LiveOps Cloud Platform, LLC), Google
From a cyber security standpoint, this is LLC, Zendesk, Inc. and Oracle America, They also share the user’s information
bad, very bad. Inc. Their retention policy is 30 days to include payment data. Their data
or longer if necessary for legal reasons. retention policy is “as long as necessary.”
The user should read the privacy https://www.dropbox.com/privacy https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/
terms completely. Below are highlights Microsoft One Drive privacystatement
from three popular free services. The Google
privacy statement links follows the Microsoft says they collect the data
summary. that is uploaded to One Drive. Their Google specifically states “We also
Dropbox privacy statement goes on about other collect the content you create, upload,
services which are concerning to security or receive from others when using our
Dropbox says, “We store, process, for the user. They state they read Outlook services.” Their retention policy varies
and transmit Your Stuff as well as emails with Cortana. When using Skype based on the data type. They also share
information related to it. This related they state, “We may access, transfer, the user’s information. https://policies.
information includes your profile disclose, and preserve your data.” google.com/privacy?hl=en#intro
information that makes it easier to
collaborate and share Your Stuff with Because they have data storage Continued on page 27
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