Monday, February 21, 2011

Cloud Computing in India Is Risky

The moment we heard about cloud computing, a question comes to our mind. The question is whether cloud computing in India is safe and secure? In other words, is India ready for cloud computing and should India use cloud computing?

India has no legal framework that can help in the safe, secure and successful use of cloud computing. For instance, India does not have data security and cyber security laws. This means crucial and sensitive data is not safe in India. Even the cyber law of India is a weak and ineffective law to deal with data breaches and cyber security breaches.

Similarly, there are no cloud computing regulations in India. With an ever increasing hunger for e-surveillance in India by Indian government and its agencies, cloud computing is a sure method of unlawful and illegal e-surveillance and interceptions. Even research in motion (RIM) has arranged for an architecture that allows Indian intelligence agencies to snoop upon blackberry messenger services at will and in real time.

Cloud computing in India also cannot be successful because of absence of privacy laws in India. In fact, cloud computing is a landmine for privacy rights in India. There is no reason whatsoever that cloud computing would not violate privacy rights, data protection principles and data security practices in India.

The truth is that India is still not ready for concepts like m-commerce and cloud computing. Cloud computing is a risky business from all counts.

Before cloud computing is imposed upon Indian citizens, Indian government must ensure a constitutionally sound privacy law for India. Absence of privacy laws in India has already made projects like Aadhar, Natgrid, CCTNS, central monitoring system, etc unconstitutional.

In the absence of legal framework for cloud computing in India and privacy laws in India, cloud computing is risky and must be avoided by private and government players.