European Cloud Computing: Ethical Implications and Case Study Analysis

This essay delves into a significant case study concerning cloud computing in Europe, focusing on the ethical dilemmas and practical challenges that arose around 2010. The core issue revolves around the European government's stringent measures to ensure data security, which, while intended to protect against cyber threats, inadvertently slowed down data transfer processes compared to the United States. The essay meticulously analyzes this case through the lens of four classical ethical theories: utilitarianism, deontology, virtue theory, and contract theory. It argues that the utilitarian perspective views the government's actions as unethical due to reduced utility, while deontology supports the actions as ethical given the government's duty to protect its citizens. The virtue and contract theories are deemed less applicable. The author recommends a balanced approach, advocating for loosened restrictions to facilitate data flow while maintaining robust security measures, including a specialized team to monitor for breaches. The essay concludes by reiterating the benefits and drawbacks of cloud computing, emphasizing the need for a practical and ethical framework for its implementation.

Running head: CLOUD COMPUTING HITS SNAG IN EUROPE
Cloud Computing Hits Snag in Europe
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

2
CLOUD COMPUTING HITS SNAG IN EUROPE
“Cloud Computing Hits Snag in Europe”
Cloud computing is a part of information technology of IT. It helps to allow access to
several configurable resources like applications, computer networks, servers, services and
storage (Zissis & Lekkas, 2012). The main advantage of cloud computing is that it can easily
arranged with less effort of management. The benefits of cloud computing include cost
effectiveness, reliability. The disadvantages of cloud computing include lack of security,
vulnerable and downtime. The essay outlines a brief discussion on the famous case study of
cloud computing that took place in Europe in the year 2010 (Niebuhr, 2013). The case study is
described using the four classical theories of ethics, which include the utilitarianism theory,
deontology theory, virtue theory and contract theory. The essay further provides proper
justifications for the case study with details.
Cloud computing is one of the most advanced technologies in modern world. It helps to
enable several configurable resources like applications, computer networks, servers, services and
storage (Hashizume et al., 2013). In the year 2010, cloud computing was responsible for the
drawback and limitations in the technology in Europe. The government of Europe wanted to
protect Europe from cyber terrorists and cyber criminals. There is always a chance of cyber
threat in case of free flow of data. Since cloud computing has always an issue with security and
privacy, the government applied various restrictions in Europe for cloud computing (O’Brien,
2017). The problem that was raised due to this was the slowing down of all the processes in
comparison with the United States. In the United States, the government enables the
organizations to utilize cloud computing under legal system. The overall sales of the cloud
services were approximately 102.1 billion dollars by the year of 2012 for United States.
However, in Europe the number was only 18 billion dollars. For the legal obstacles in Europe,

3
CLOUD COMPUTING HITS SNAG IN EUROPE
the important organizations of the United States have to make the limitations loose enough for
transferring the data. The researchers at the HP labs in England are trying to make ways for
encrypting the data before sending to the cloud and then decrypting it after leaving it to the
cloud. The second problem in the cloud of Europe is the European Data Privacy Directive
(O’Brien, 2017). It disallows any type of European Union data to move outside the borders
of Europe. Only few countries like the United States, Canada and Argentina are allowed
to provide cloud services.
The problems mentioned above were not at all illegal, however when they are observed
with respect to ethics, it is considered as unethical. European government was just trying to
protect its countries from any sort of data and security breaches. Here, the question is about
being ethical and non-ethical. The above case study needs to fulfill the requirement of the four
classical theories of ethics (Crimmins, 2017). The first theory is the utilitarianism theory.
According to this theory, the action that provides maximum utility and can maximize the utility
of a situation can be considered as the best activity. This means, the total satisfaction gained
from a utility after eliminating the trouble of the individual, involved in the activity. The
assumptions that are made on the utilitarianism theory are the total and average utilitarianism. It
depends how much utility the situation or case study is obtaining from the activity. In this
particular case study, the European government is stopping the entrance of data in the cloud due
to security reasons (Arntzenius, 2014). They are not allowing the European Union to send and
receive data to the cloud. This is in case slowing down the process and preventing the utility to
be maximized. Therefore, it can be claimed as unethical in terms of utilitarianism theory.
The second classical theory of ethics is the Deontology Theory. According to this theory,
any decision that is to be taken by an individual should be based on the morality of any activity

4
CLOUD COMPUTING HITS SNAG IN EUROPE
(Lazar, 2017). This particular theory states that all ethics are based on several duties and
obligations. The main motivation to do a job comes from the moral obligation. The external and
the internal sources are responsible for such obligations. According to the Deontology theory, an
individual must be ethical by his moral under every circumstance (Dewey, 2016). The internal
sources include the personal and the cultural values. An individual’s character is based on the
internal sources that are how the internal sources have affected the individual. The external
sources are those sources, which include all kinds of legal rules, universal and religious laws
(Chen & Schonger, 2017). In this case study, the European government cannot be claimed as
unethical as they were performing their duties. They did whatever they felt were right. This is not
unethical according to the deontology theory.
The third classical theory of ethics is the Virtue Theory (Audi, 2012). According to the
virtue ethics, the decision and the thoughts that a person has completely depends on his
character. If he has a good and ethical character, he is bound to take ethical decisions. However,
if the person does not bear a good character, he will have such thoughts that are negative and will
take up such decisions, which will have a negative impact on the society and the surrounding.
The thoughts of a person is absolutely controlled by him (Van Hooft, 2014). In this case study of
cloud computing, this particular case study does not apply.
The final theory of classical theory of ethics is the Contract Ethics (Fried, 2015).
According to the contract ethics, the morality of the values of a person is completely dependent
on a contract. This contract helps to take out the moral rules and ethical laws of a person. This
theory of ethics is not applicable to this particular case study of cloud computing. There is no
contract present in this case study (Dewey, 2016). Therefore, it cannot be said that the case study
is ethical or not.

5
CLOUD COMPUTING HITS SNAG IN EUROPE
European government took a decision to protect the security level of the data. It slowed
down the entire process. Taking into consideration of both the positive and negative impacts of
the case study, I would recommend that the European government should allow some more
countries to send and receive data from Europe. Security is good for any country; however,
excess security would be harmful and degradable for the country. For security purpose, I would
recommend that they should keep a special squad, who can look into the matter of any kind of
breaches. The contract theory and the virtue theory do not apply to this case study. The
deontology theory proves this case study to be ethical, but utilitarianism theory proves it as
unethical.
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, cloud computing is one of
the most advanced technologies in modern world. It helps to enable several configurable
resources like applications, computer networks, servers, services and storage. Cloud computing
enables the users for data processing either on a third party server or in a privately owned cloud.
The main advantage of cloud computing is that it can easily arranged with less effort of
management. The benefits of cloud computing include cost effectiveness, reliability, such vast
advantages, cloud computing do have some disadvantages. The disadvantages of cloud
computing include lack of security, vulnerable and downtime. The above essay focuses on the
drawback and degradation of European cloud case study that took place in the year 2010 due to
the excess security of the European government. The case study is well justified with the four
theories of ethics, namely the utilitarianism theory, the deontology theory, the virtue theory and
the contract theory. The contract and virtue theories are not applicable to this case study. The
utilitarianism theory proves that the case study is unethical however, the deontology theory
proves the case study to be ethical.

6
CLOUD COMPUTING HITS SNAG IN EUROPE
References
Arntzenius, F. (2014). Utilitarianism, decision theory and eternity. Philosophical
Perspectives, 28(1), 31-58.
Audi, R. (2012). Virtue ethics as a resource in business. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(2), 273-
291.
Chen, D. L., & Schonger, M. (2017). Social preferences or sacred values? theory and evidence of
deontological motivations.
Crimmins, J. E. (Ed.). (2017). The Bloomsbury encyclopedia of utilitarianism. Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Dewey, J. (2016). Ethics. Read Books Ltd.
Fried, C. (2015). Contract as promise: A theory of contractual obligation. Oxford University
Press, USA.
Hashizume, K., Rosado, D. G., Fernández-Medina, E., & Fernandez, E. B. (2013). An analysis of
security issues for cloud computing. Journal of Internet Services and Applications, 4(1),
5.
Lazar, S. (2017). Deontological Decision Theory and Agent-Centered Options. Ethics, 127(3),
579-609.
Niebuhr, R. (2013). Moral man and immoral society: A study in ethics and politics. Westminster
John Knox Press.

7
CLOUD COMPUTING HITS SNAG IN EUROPE
O’Brien, K. (2017). Cloud Computing Hits Snag in Europe. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 16
September 2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/technology/20cloud.html?
hpw
Van Hooft, S. (2014). Understanding virtue ethics. Routledge.
Zissis, D., & Lekkas, D. (2012). Addressing cloud computing security issues. Future Generation
computer systems, 28(3), 583-592.

8
CLOUD COMPUTING HITS SNAG IN EUROPE
Ethics Technique
1. What is going on?
 Cloud computing is a part of information technology of IT. It helps to allow access to
several configurable resources like applications, computer networks, servers, services and
storage. Cloud computing enables the users to process the data either on a third party
server or in a privately owned cloud. The European government wanted extra security
and that is why they applied extra security on the data of the cloud, which in case slowed
down the entire process.
2. What are the facts?
 Cloud computing is one of the best technologies for transferring data.
 Cloud computing has issues in security.
 European government wanted extra security for the data that is sent or received through
cloud computing.
 This extra security slowed down the entire process.
3. What are the issues?
 The process of transferring data was slowed down.
 Only a handful of countries were allowed to send and receive data.
 The overall sales of the country were much less compared to other countries.
4. Who is affected?
 The entire Europe
 The businessmen

9
CLOUD COMPUTING HITS SNAG IN EUROPE
 The organizations
5. What are the ethical issues and implications?
 According to Utilitarianism theory, the action that provides maximum utility and can
maximize the utility of a situation can be considered as the best activity.
 The government is preventing from data transfer via cloud. This is not maximizing the
utility and thus can be claimed as unethical.
 According to Deontology theory, any decision that is to be taken by an individual should
be based on the morality of any activity.
 The European government cannot be claimed as unethical as they were performing their
duties.
6. What can be done about it?
 European government should loosen their strictness so that data can be easily sent or
received.
 They should allow more countries to get involved.
 For security, special squad should be kept so that there would be no problem.
7. What options are there?
 Loosening the restrictions for sending and receiving data.
 Involving more countries in data transfer.
 Keeping strict laws for any type of data breaches.
 Keeping a special squad, who can look into matter of data security.
8. Which option is best and why?

10
CLOUD COMPUTING HITS SNAG IN EUROPE
 For this particular case study, the last option would be the best option. European
government is concerned about the security of their data in cloud. However, if a special
squad will be kept, they will be checking if there is any type of breaches present.