Questions of trust as we head into the “cloud”

The leaders of the G-20 nations are meeting in Cannes, France this week to discuss the global economic recovery and ongoing debt crisis. Working with Newsdesk Communications in the United Kingdom, the G-20 Research Group, a global network of scholars who follow the work of G-20 leaders from the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto has produced a special volume titled The G20 Cannes Summit 2011: A New Way Forward to discuss recent developments among the nations involved.

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert wrote an article in the publication, which examines the impact of an increase in “cloud computing” on issues of policing, privacy and human rights.

In the article, Prof. Deibert states that a growing number of Internet users and firms today are engaged in “cloud computing” — the process of accessing and using software remotely via the Internet. He argues that this rapid shift to an entirely new ecosystem has created a whole host of new governance issues, not least in states where democracy is lacking.

Click here [pdf] to read the full article.