Cloud Computing and Ethical Concerns

Cloud computing refers to the services which are hardware-centred for offering storage capacity, computation, and interconnections in which: the management of hardware is exceedingly obscure from the perception of the users; customers collect infrastructure costs as flexible operating expenditures; and where the infrastructure capability is particularly versatile (up or down). The cloud unit varies from conventional outsourcing due to the fact consumers never surrender their own Information Technology assets to be controlled. As an alternative, they connect to the cloud, handling it as though it is an enclosed information core or computer delivering precisely the same capabilities (Avram, 2014). The technology is considered as one of the rapidly growing sectors within the computing market which is going to dominate and influence countless areas of computing.

Following this buzz, it is possible to notice that cloud computing can bring about a number of ethical concerns despite its positive aspects. The most apparent one involves data security which can occur as a challenge whenever clients store private info within these platforms and lose control of the individual with the rights of usage and access. Comparable problems may take place in relation to intellectual property that could become distributed among various jurisdictions bringing about a number of ethical and legal concerns. 

Therefore, there is a valid reason to presume that cloud computing warrants moral evaluation. Although the technological innovation is a social as well as sophisticated reality, cloud computing is nevertheless a growing concept. However, it has not yet been established what cloud computing will be utilized for in the foreseeable future and which legal, ethical, or social implications its uses will present. In addition to that, it is recommended not to delay until unwanted as well as unforeseen consequences occur. Early identification of moral along with correlated concerns could save money and time that is going to be spent in the future in alleviating them and it can aid user acknowledgement as well as promote helpful elements of the technology.  This paper is going to discuss a general insight into the significance linked to cloud computing which will include its positive aspects and drawbacks and afterwards present the ethical challenges associated with the technology.

Positive Aspects and Drawbacks Associated with cloud computing

Avram (2014), opined that the most significant benefit of cloud computing is “flexibility”: this is the capability to increase aptitude or apps immediately, safety measures, as well as other Information Technology, attributes which they require from experts within data-center processing. They acquire advanced information center solutions upon need, in just the quantity they require and can afford, at the degree of services established with the merchant, having functionality which is often included or deducted anytime (Avram, 2014).

The regulated expense, pay-as-you-go strategy attracts tiny sized as well as medium-sized establishments; with a small amount of capital expenditure and servicing charge is required. The maintenance and the control of the information technology are managed remotely at a typical monthly fee and the organization consequently eliminates the concerns of “plumbing issues”. Considering that the merchant has several clients, it could reduce the cost of each unit to every consumer. Larger organizations could find it quicker to control partnerships within the cloud, instead of being required to create gaps within their firewalls regarding contract analysis companies. The deployment of SaaS often consumes minimum time compared to in-house models, updates are much easier, and users are usually utilizing the application's latest version. There could be fewer bugs due to the fact complexities are reduced as a result of having only one software version (Almorsy, Grundy, & Müller, 2016).

All these may seem very attractive however there exist drawbacks to these aspects. For instance, within the cloud, an individual may not hold the type of management over his/her information or the applications' functionality required or the capabilities to audit or alter the operations as well as guidelines within which users have to operate. Distinct aspects of software could be in numerous sites within the cloud. Adhering to the government policies such as FDA audit or Sarbanes Oxley, is significantly challenging. The tools for maintenance and monitoring are not mature. Due to this fact, it is difficult to obtain metrics from the cloud ant this makes the overall management of the work difficult (Almorsy, Grundy, & Müller, 2016).

As Rittinghouse, & Ransome (2016) asserted, cloud users are at risk of losing information and data through getting them inaccessible within the exclusive platforms and consequently lose power over data given that resources to monitor who is utilizing them or who is able to look at them are insufficient. Loss of data is an existing threat. In August 2009, over one million United States clients of the T-Mobile Sidekick cell phone, an organization recently purchased by Microsoft, lost data due to failure within a faulty server. Clients within USIU also felt the impact of the loss since some of the respondents were also Microsoft users. Keep in mind, however, that it is not difficult to undervalue dangers linked to the existing atmosphere while overestimating the chances of an upcoming one. Cloud computing doesn’t pose a threat to all systems. Prospective customers have to assess safety measures including firewalls, as well as encryption strategies and ensure that they can access their data as well as the application or source codes in case the vendor runs out of business (Rittinghouse, & Ransome, 2016).

Ethical Concerns Associated with Cloud Computing

Despite the various advantages presented by cloud computing, it is subjected to different ethical implications and an ethical evaluation would appropriately present through a proper definition of the idea of ethics. Nonetheless, ethics is an extremely intricate term having numerous consequences and meanings. Consequently, cloud computing amounts to three advancements which are based on an ethical evaluation: 

1)   The changing of management from technology consumers to the third parties offering the cloud services as a result of offshoring and outsourcing of ICT features to the cloud. 

2)   The storage of information in various locations throughout several servers across the globe probably owned and administrated by many different organizations.

3)   The connection of a number of services throughout the cloud. At varying degrees of performance associated with various providers, the connection is provided at a particular service to an end-user.

These factors are going to have a fundamental part in the discourse of specific moral concerns linked to cloud computing.

Control 

Cloud computing comprises of the offshoring and outsourcing or of Information and communications technology duties to 3rd party service providers. Any data that was once saved locally is stored in the cloud. Therefore, the user puts his/her data and computation on devices he/she is not able to directly manage. In so doing, a substantial number of cloud computing users or clients renounce the control and power over their data information (Almorsy, Grundy, & Müller, 2016).

The giving up of direct control may be a problem in case something does not go well. As stated by Arora et al. (2013), the threats linked to cloud computing include illegal access, corruption of data, failure of infrastructure, or outing/unavailability. If something goes wrong, problems will arise in discerning individuals that have created the problem and, without sufficient concrete proof, it is extremely difficult for the involved parties to hold one another accountable for the issue in case a conflict develops (Borgman et al., 2013).

Cloud computing erases the boundary between the information or data which was an element of a person's own information technology infrastructure and that which lies outside. The systems could extend beyond the borders of several parties and cross the security margins in which these parties have set up (Garg, Versteeg, & Buyya, 2013). The process is known as de-parameterization which appertains to the vanishing of borders between organizations and systems that are getting linked and fragmented simultaneously (Borgman et al., 2013). Due to de-parameterization, not only the boundary of the company's information technology infrastructure becomes blurred, the border of the accountability of the agencies additionally becomes less clear. Within a networked technological and organizational framework, it becomes more and more challenging to assign implications of activities to one individual or corporation.

Ownership

Data offshoring furthermore raises the concern of who are the owners of the data an end-user saves in the cloud as well as what the providers of these services can do with the data (Arora, Parashar, & Transforming, 2013). Aside from the users actively storing information in the cloud, the technology additionally creates data per se for various applications such as the provision of liability, to enhance the provided services or various other reasons including security or performance. Gradually, megabyte by megabyte, the digital relationships and trails are being obtained collectively as a result of the utilization of distinctive identifiers as well as advanced matching codes (Arora, Parashar, & Transforming, 2013). This leaves a path of frequently quite comprehensive private data which, if not appropriately secured, could be taken advantage of and abused. Up to now, only a few restrictions in the way they use the data are established. Furthermore, as soon as this data is located in more than one database inside the cloud, it may be accessed as well as utilized in means that users never imagined or expected, and with minimal supervision.

Despite the fact that identity-based models are going to present lots of positive aspects, new threats and risks are appearing at the same time. Identity theft, as well as fraud, are the problems associated with the data era made possible through the overabundance of personal information in circulation, as well as new varieties of discrimination along with social engineering made possible through information, knowledge and data asymmetries. Furthermore, Arora, et al. (2013) argues that data stored with a 3rd parties such as a cloud computing company possesses weaker data security as compared to when the information only stays in the control of the individual. Agencies of governing authorities along with private litigants might have the ability to access data from cloud providers more effortlessly as compared to the original user or content creator (Arora, Parashar, & Transforming, 2013). Concerns regarding ownership additionally develop with regards to copyrights infringements. By giving clients admittance to virtually limitless computing storage and power, Cloud services may make it even less difficult to share copyrighted content on the world wide web.

Privacy

Whenever ethical complications occur relating to information about individuals, they are often cast with regards to privacy (Liang, Yen & Wang, 2014). Despite the fact that there exists comprehensive agreement that data security is crucial, the idea continues to be difficult to pin down or explicate. Generally, it aims to restrict entry to particular forms of private data as well as prevent people from acquiring and using data concerning other individuals. Given that there is a lot of argument on the ethical justification associated with the right to privacy, the genuine reach involving data security continues to be obscure (Arora, Parashar, & Transforming, 2013).

Particularly when it comes to personal data saved in the cloud, vagueness regarding data security may be potentially unsafe. Since data is not stored locally anymore, the control over the information is changed from the owner to the agencies. Users subsequently have to trust the cloud company that specific personal data are not going to be exposed. However, not only is it possible that various server companies have distinct points of views regarding privacy, to the clients, it is not going to always be lucid regarding the services provider that he/she is working with. Different services are significantly becoming connected in the cloud. For instance, an application hosted by one corporation may be developed on a deployment/improvement structure of a different one. Both reasons mean that to customers, it is not going to always be clear what to anticipate from the cloud companies with regards to data security.

Conclusion

By demonstrating the array of probable ethical concerns which arise as a result of the overarching aspects involving cloud computing, it is evident that the technology and ethics are linked. The way this connection is construed, for instance as a threat to user acknowledgement or as a 3rd party concern necessitating additional consideration is a different subject. Either way, this paper ought to raise awareness. The second question, that of implementation, is an even more complex one. As previously mentioned, most organizations providing the services of the cloud gather huge quantities of information, most of it being sensitive private information, that is subsequently saved in data facilities in locations all over the globe. For that reason, a critical aspect having an influence on the acceptance and development of Cloud computing is going to, therefore, be the way these firms, and the nations in which they function, address data security concerns. Issues on data security concerns are extensively recognized by governing bodies, analysts, end-users and providers of cloud services as well.

References

Almorsy, M., Grundy, J., & Müller, I. (2016). An analysis of the cloud computing security problem. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107.

Arora, R., Parashar, A., & Transforming, C. C. I. (2013). Secure user data in cloud computing using encryption algorithms. International journal of engineering research and applications, 3(4), 1922-1926.

Avram, M. G. (2014). Advantages and challenges of adopting cloud computing from an enterprise perspective. Procedia Technology, 12, 529-534.

Borgman, H. P., Bahli, B., Heier, H., & Schewski, F. (2013). Cloudrise: exploring cloud computing adoption and governance within the TOE framework. In System Sciences (HICSS), 2013 46th Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 4425-4435). IEEE.

Garg, S. K., Versteeg, S., & Buyya, R. (2013). A framework for ranking of cloud computing services. Future Generation Computer Systems, 29(4), 1012-1023.

Lian, J. W., Yen, D. C., & Wang, Y. T. (2014). An exploratory study to understand the critical factors affecting the decision to adopt cloud computing in Taiwan hospital. International Journal of Information Management, 34(1), 28-36.

Rittinghouse, J. W., & Ransome, J. F. (2016). Cloud computing: implementation, management, and security. CRC press.