The US Department of Commerce has issued an opinion statement aimed at clarifying how the US-EU Safe Harbor framework for data protection agreements applies to cloud computing services.

According to a White & Black analysis of the statement, the US-EU framework applies to cloud computing but service providers remain obliged to enter into contracts with EU data controllers.

More specifically, the USDOC opinion statement provides responses to the following issues:

• Is the Safe Harbor is limited to US organisations?
• Does the Safe Harbor act as a substitute for failing to comply with an EU Member State’s national law on data protection?
• Does the Safe Harbor guarantee EU data exporters that appropriate security measures have been applied by US cloud providers?

The German Federal Council has published its comments on the European Commission’s strategy on cloud computing, claiming that the strategy in its current form does not deal adequately with several issues unique to cloud computing, reports Hunton & Williams.

The European Commission has issued a Communication seeking to “unleash the potential of cloud computing in Europe”.

Morrison & Foerster reports that sceptical observers may question whether the proposed package of extra regulation, certification and contractual limitations is more likely to slow down – not speed up – the implementation of cloud computing across Europe.