Law of the Cloud v Law of the Land: Challenges and Opportunities for Innovation

Cloud Computing enables the dynamic provision of resources on-demand over the Internet. The key advantage for users is that data becomes accessible from anywhere and at any time. However, to the extent that they lose control over the infrastructure, users can no longer control the way data can be accessed by them or by others. This is likely to negatively affect the fundamental rights of end-users in terms of privacy and freedom of expression. Assuming that market mechanisms alone are unable to preserve competition in the market for Cloud services, some other form of regulation might be necessary. This paper will compare the advantages and drawbacks of two types of governmental intervention (ex-ante regulation and ex-post regulation) to conclude that the law should ultimately encourage self-regulation by the market players themselves.