Cloud Computing in Europe: Ethical Analysis and Recommendations

This essay examines the ethical challenges of cloud computing in Europe, focusing on a case study involving data security concerns and government restrictions. The essay explores the advantages of cloud computing, such as easy data analysis and affordability, while also acknowledging its disadvantages, particularly the risk of downtime. The core of the analysis centers on the European government's efforts to secure data through encryption and restricted data transfer, which, while intended to protect against cyber threats, slowed down cloud processes and hampered economic growth compared to the United States. The essay applies four classical theories of ethics – utilitarianism, deontology, virtue theory, and contract theory – to assess the ethical implications of the European government's actions. The utilitarianism theory suggests the case is unethical due to reduced utility, whereas the deontology theory views the actions as ethical, based on fulfilling governmental duties. The essay concludes by recommending a balance between data security and open data transfer, advocating for stricter laws against data breaches to foster a more beneficial cloud computing environment in Europe.

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:

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“Cloud Computing Hits Snag in Europe”
Cloud computing is the technology utilized for transferring data or any type of services
via Internet. The services include analytics, networking, servers and storage. The services are
configurable (Dewey, 2016). The main benefit of cloud computing is that the data analysis can
be done easily. Apart from this, cloud computing is affordable for all organizations. It even does
its job with intense speed and this in turn increases the overall productivity of the organization
easily. However, in spite of helping the technological world with so many advantages, cloud
computing do has some of the major disadvantages (Hashizume et al., 2013). The major
disadvantage of cloud computing is that the downtime is excessive high. The essay given below
briefly describes the major turmoil that occurred in Europe due to cloud computing. The essay
helps to understand whether the case is ethical or not with the help of the four classical theories
of ethics. Proper justifications are also provided to understand the case study.
Cloud computing helps to transfer data and other services over the Internet easily. This is
done with utmost security and reliability. However, in 2010, Europe suffered from several
drawbacks in the cloud (O’Brien, 2017). The European government wanted to secure European
cloud and the confidential data from all types of cyber threats and risks. The free flow of data
can be easily modified and intercepted by the cyber criminals and terrorists. One of the major
disadvantage of cloud computing is that the security can be intercepted. Due to this reason, the
government of Europe restricted the cloud to such level that no data was theft was intercepted
through this. However, the problem with such restrictions was that the procedures and processes
of the cloud were slowed down with the comparison of the United States (Zissis & Lekkas,
2012). The government of US allows all the organizations to transfer data through cloud
computing legally. Europe was lagging behind in terms of sales by almost 6 times than US. The

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total sales in 2012 were about 102 billion dollars in US, whereas in Europe it was only about 18
billion dollars. The main problem was that all the data were being encrypted before transferring
them. This was slowing down the entire process. Another problem in this case study was the
European Data Privacy Directive. This directive did not allow data from European Union to
move internationally (O’Brien, 2017). Handful countries like US, Argentina and Canada were
allowed for providing the services of cloud.
The main objective of this essay is to understand whether the case study of the European
cloud is ethical or non ethical. There are four classical theories of ethics (Arntzenius, 2014).
They are the utilitarianism theory, deontology theory, virtue theory and the contract theory. The
government of Europe was stopping the data to transfer in the cloud. The utilitarianism theory
states that every activity should have a utility. This type of activity can be said as the best
activity. In this case study, the European government was trying to secure and protect the
European data. They did not have any wrong or unethical intentions behind this (Crimmins,
2017). However, the activity did not have any utility. Rather, it was negative. Therefore, as per
the utilitarianism theory, the case study is non-ethical.
The second theory is the Deontology theory. This theory states that all decisions taken by
human beings must be taken on the basis of the morality of an action (Chen & Schonger, 2017).
According to this theory, every decision is based on obligations and duties. The moral obligation
obliges a person to complete his task. This type of obligation comes from external and internal
sources like personal, cultural values, legal, religious and universal laws. In the case study of
cloud computing, the government of Europe is not non-ethical as they did not do anything wrong
(Lazar, 2017). They were only performing their responsibilities. The case study is not unethical
as per the deontology theory.

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The third theory of ethics is the virtue theory. The thoughts that a person have and the
decision that a person takes is dependent on the character of the person (Audi, 2012). If the
person bears an ethical character, he will come up with ethical and moral decisions. However, if
he bears an unethical character, he will always take unethical decisions. The thoughts are
completely managed and controlled by the individual (Van Hooft, 2014). Here, this theory does
not apply as the decision taken by European government is not based on thoughts.
The fourth theory is the contract theory (Fried, 2015). This theory states that the morality
of an individual depends on any type of contract. It is helpful for taking out the ethical and moral
values in that individual. No such contract is mentioned in this case (Niebuhr, 2013). Thus, this
theory is not applicable in this particular case study.
The decision taken by European government for protecting the data in the cloud
somewhat backfired them. The entire process was slowed down. I would recommend that some
more countries should be allowed for sending and receiving data. This will be helpful for Europe
as it will open up more options for Europe.
Therefore, it can be concluded that cloud computing is the technology utilized for
transferring data or any type of services via Internet. The services include analytics, networking,
servers and storage. The services are configurable. The main benefit of cloud computing is that
the data analysis can be done easily. Apart from this, cloud computing is affordable for all
organizations. It even does its job with intense speed and this in turn increases the overall
productivity of the organization easily. However, in spite of helping the technological world with
so many advantages, cloud computing do has some of the major disadvantages. The major
disadvantage of cloud computing is that the downtime is excessive high. The essay briefly

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describes the major turmoil that occurred in Europe due to cloud computing. The essay helps to
understand whether the case is ethical or not with the help of the four classical theories of ethics.
According to the utilitarianism theory, the case is non ethical, however, according to the
deontology theory, the case study is ethical. The virtue and contract theories do not apply to this
case study. Proper justifications are also provided to understand the case study.

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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.

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O’Brien, K. (2017). Cloud Computing Hits Snag in Europe. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 19
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.

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Ethics Technique
1. What is going on?
 Cloud computing helps in transferring data and other services over the Internet. The
government of Europe was worried for the security of their data. They have started to
encrypt all the messages in the cloud. The entire process has slowed down due to this
problem.
2. What are the facts?
 The best technology for transfer of data is cloud computing.
 It has problems in security.
 Government of Europe required more security to their data.
 This resulted in slowing down of the process.
3. What are the issues?
 Slowing down of the process.
 Few countries were only involved in sending and receiving of data.
4. Who is affected?
 The European organizations.
 The European businessmen
5. What are the ethical issues and implications?
 The utilitarianism theory states that any action that has the maximum utility is known as
the best action.

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 European government is not allowing transfer of data and this is reducing utility.
Therefore it is unethical.
 The deontology theory states that all decisions are based on morality of an action.
 The government of Europe is not unethical as they were only fulfilling their duties.
6. What can be done about it?
 More countries should be allowed for data transfer.
 Government should not be as strict as they are now with the security.
7. What options are there?
 Involvement of more countries for data transfer.
 Generating strict laws for breaching of data.
 Less strict with the security
8. Which option is the best and why?
 The best option for this case study is the generation of strict laws for breaching of data.
This will stop the cyber hackers and terrorists from getting the data.