Europese overheden en bedrijven kunnen Amerikaanse cloudproviders gaan wantrouwen door het NSA-schandaal. Eurocommissaris Neelie Kroes voorziet een vertrouwensbreuk met Amerikaanse cloudaanbieders door de recente onthullingen over brede NSA-dataspionage. Vooral door het nieuws van spionage van Europese partners door Amerikaanse overheid zet kwaad bloed.
‘If European cloud customers cannot trust the United States government or their assurances, then maybe they won’t trust US cloud providers either. That is my guess. And if I am right then there are multi-billion euro consequences for American companies. If I were an American cloud provider, I would be quite frustrated with my government right now. I do not have an agenda here: I am committed to open markets, to liberal values, and the opportunities of new digital innovations. Yet even I am thinking twice about whether there is such a thing as a level playing field when it comes to the cloud’.
Kroes roept Europese aanbieders op om zich met betere privacy- en databescherming te onderscheiden.Vorig jaar presenteerde Kroes plannen om Europa om te smeden van ‘cloudafhouder’ tot ‘cloudaanvoerder’.
Daarom waarschuwt Kroes ervoor dat de cloudscepsis niet moet doorslaan zodat lidstaten alleen nog maar een cloud binnen de grenzen willen hebben. ‘If individual countries work disjointedly on separate national clouds, then the potential is lost. In this game, ambition can’t stop at borders. And this means the European Union has a critical role to play: creating scale, and forging co-operative links. This is about giving customers more reasons to use cloud services and helping cloud services reach maximum scale. This is why we were agreeing on EU-wide specifications today for cloud procurement’. Want clouds bereiken efficiëntie door hun grensoverschrijdende schaal, anders wordt het duurder, aldus Kroes.
Vertrouwen en privacy zijn cruciaal voor de cloud. Dat moeten Europese cloudgebruikers, Amerikaanse cloudaanbieders en beleidsmakers goed over nadenken, concludeert de bewindsvrouw. ‘We need trust. In some cases, of course, it may be legitimate for authorities to access, to some degree, information held online; child protection and terrorism are good examples. Such access must be based on transparent rule of law, and is the exception to the rule’. En tot slot: ‘The cloud has a lot of potential. But potential doesn’t count for much in an atmosphere of distrust. European cloud users and, American cloud providers and policy makers need to think carefully about that’.
