Cloud Computing and Ethics - Essay Example

Legal Cloud Computing Association (LCCA) established in December 2010 has been assigned the task to facilitate and adopt cloud computing technology within the legal and ethical framework. The LCCA has now come forward recommending law firms to protect confidential client information in the following manner.SecurityLaw firms should know fully about the vendor's security practices, encryption protocols, storage procedures, and any likely security breach.ConfidentialityLaw firms should also know about the persons who have access to the providers' data storage system and also whether or not those persons are subject to confidentiality obligations.

ControlLawyer firms should take steps in ensuring that any data uploaded to the cloud remain their sole and exclusive property. They should also find out from the storage provider if they have established any server outside the U.S because then laws applicable there will be different. (Kewalramani, 2011)ConclusionThe potential benefits for law firms in using cloud computing are many. Law firms get huge savings in real estate, IT-set up cost, personnel needed to manage IT systems by outsourcing their needs to the third party at fraction of the cost and without any time delay as far as the internet is working.

These services are available 24 hours a day and all days in a year. If the law firms try to establish all this in-house, their cost in creating infrastructure and in operations will be exorbitant. When law firms resort to cloud computing, it simply means that their all confidential client information is no more housed within company premises but it is now placed somewhere in cyberspace, which by no means law firm may ever even identify and that is precisely where the crux of the issue is.In the present state of the highly competitive arena, when the bottom line is equally important, there is no surprise that even after knowing the drawback of cloud computing, law firms are forced to go for it.

Just before the advent of internet and electronic gadgets, a few years back, most of the law firms outsourced their copying needs of papers to commercial photocopying companies outside their premises. It is obvious that the photocopying company’s operations are neither in clients nor in law firms' control. They are bound by only contractual agreement of confidentiality, industry practice and this continued success for years.Recently, on the Rules of Professional Conduct, Arizona State Bar Committee issued an opinion on December 9, 2009, that whether a law firm can make use of online storage and retrieval for them and their client.

It started to observe necessary precautions to safeguard the confidentiality of the information; however, it did not address the issues of client consent, or supervision that were raised by ethics committees. (State Bar of Arizona Ethics. Op. 09-04)The fact is that so far no ruling has prohibited law firms to move to cloud computing. At this juncture, it can be argued that ethical lawyers need to thoroughly scrutinize the operations of the provider to ensure the security and confidentiality aspects to safeguard their clients.