US groups: Foreign cloud providers marketing against privacy concerns

25.07.2012
Cloud computing services from outside the U.S. are trying to exploit perceived weaknesses in privacy laws to drive business away from U.S. providers, according to some representatives of the tech industry.

Deutsche Telekom and other companies are as more private than those from U.S. vendors because of the Patriot Act and other laws, representatives of the Business Software Alliance and Rackspace told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee during a hearing Wednesday.

Foreign cloud computing vendors are spreading "fear, uncertainty and doubt" about U.S. privacy standards, Justin Freeman, corporate counsel for Rackspace, told members of the House Judiciary Committee's Internet subcommittee.

"We commonly see almost absurd positioning of what the Patriot Act permits, to the extent that it allows almost any U.S. government agency to, without notice or warrant, access any private data that's on a server contained within the United States," Freeman said.

"That's totally false," said Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican.

Witnesses from the U.S. tech industry and some lawmakers complained that some of the privacy problems are more perceived than actual, but some also called for Congress to change U.S. privacy laws to better protect data stored in the cloud.