Data flow management and compliance in cloud computing

As cloud computing becomes an increasingly dominant means of providing computing resources, legal and regulatory issues associated with the cloud also become more pronounced. In particular, there is a heightened focus on ensuring the privacy and integrity of users' personal data. At present, the cloud is opaque, a black box. The technical means for enforcing and demonstrating compliance with data management practices lag behind legal and regulatory aspirations. Information flow control (IFC) enables auditable, fine-grained management as data moves throughout systems. IFC offers the potential to improve the visibility and control over data flows within and between cloud services and cloud-hosted applications. The authors use real-world legal/regulatory examples to show how IFC can help satisfy data management obligations and improve the accountability of responsible parties.