High on the agenda will be the matter of data sovereignty and state access to data in the cloud, the rapidly developing European Union cloud computing strategy, proposals to apply copyright levies on Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), and data privacy.
Guest speakers will include: Conor Ward, Partner at Hogan Lovells and Chair of CILF; Dr Richard Sykes, Chairman, Cloud Industry Forum; Ben Jaffey, Barrister; Simon Rice, Principal Policy Adviser at the UK Information Commissioners Office; and Ken Ducatel, Head of Unit for software, services and cloud at the European Commission.
Conor Ward, Partner at Hogan Lovells and Chair of CILF, said: “Businesses often assume knowledge of the laws regulating governmental access to data in their home jurisdictions, and they make further assumptions about the legal regimes abroad where cloud service providers may be located. The existence of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties greatly diminishes any argument that data stored in one jurisdiction is immune from access by other governmental authorities in another jurisdiction. In the wake of the Prism scandal, concerns have no doubt intensified, but for the most part, the picture today isn’t materially different from five years ago.”
Alex Hilton, CIF’s CEO, added: “Businesses are misleading themselves and their customers if they contend that restricting Cloud Service Providers to one jurisdiction better insulates data from governmental access. For many end users the message to-date has been one of fear, uncertainty and doubt on the law, and that has had the potential to hold the market back. This event will debunk this myth and address the legal issues relating to data sovereignty, along with a number of key topics, including the European Commission’s cloud computing strategy.”