Knowing how your data's used
Peter Brown drew my attention to the news that Microsoft has adopted a standard which seeks to bring some clarity to how data is used, stored or shared in the cloud. The UK's standards body, BSI, has also verified that Azure and Office 365 respect the terms of the standard's code of practice.
Barb Darrow, for Gigaom, highlights the risk that this could be seen as just a publicity stunt.
I've also seen suggestions that adherence to the standard, last year's ISO/IEC 27018, somehow makes customer data safer. It doesn't do that. But it does let everyone be clearer about what can and cannot be done by, to or with data, and by whom. That's good. As the Microsoft releases around the topic stress, it's about building trust.
When your data is out of reach, in a building too secure to let you ogle the server yourself, trust in the operator of the building and its services becomes key.