The Rise of Investigations by European Data Protection Authorities in the Context of Cloud Computing

Abstract

This deliverable presents the preliminary results of T:D-4.1 of Work Package 44 of the Cloud Accountability Project. This deliverable is partly an exploratory deliverable which investigates whether there has been a rise in the number of investigations of cloud providers conducted by the European data protection authorities over the past five years. If the ‘rise’ thesis can be supported, the second part of this deliverable will examine what this rise tells us about information privacy regulation in the context of cloud computing. This deliverable advances two distinct but interconnected arguments. Firstly, we argue that cloud investigations are increasing in significance and visibility as regulatory tools deployed by European data protection authorities to protect information privacy in Europe. Secondly, we argue that by empirically analysing cloud investigations in detail, in terms of ‘programmes’ and ‘technologies’ of government, we can shed light on how information privacy regulation is formed and performed, by specific cloud investigations, as a dynamic, contested, and contingent ‘achievement’ which is generated from multiple and heterogeneous interactions between diverse actors. In particular, here we draw attention to how at times certain actors can resist the attempts of other actors to ‘act upon them.’