Michael S. Neustel, a U.S. Patent Attorney with says most cloud storage vendors have similar policies related to using, modifying and reproducing data. This allows vendors the freedom to move an archive from one data center to another. Neustel says it is unlikely Google would ever use private data for a television commercial. In fact, the terms state clearly that the user still owns the data, and that private storage archives will remain private.

However, Neustral says the policies are overly vague. Google has one standard terms of service they use for all of their services. "The Google Drive policy is inherently unfair to users since it requires Google Drive users to provide Google with several unnecessary rights to their copyrighted works," he says.

Neustral says the policy might apply for a service like Google Translate, where the data has to be analyzed and even parsed for intended meaning, but not for cloud storage. That's a good lesson for CIOs who need to understand cloud storage policies--one size does not fit all.

That's why, for enterprise cloud storage, most experts say the most critical step with storage policies is to investigate the actual contract you have with the vendor. This might require scrutiny from a corporate attorney, and further investigations into such intangibles as how to retain data archives if a cloud storage vendor goes under and how to encrypt access to the cloud storage.