Is it possible to stop the Government from snooping online?

Is it possible to Prevent Government Snooping in the Cloud?

Revelations brought to light by the Edward Snowden and US NSA spying scandals have made it abundantly clear that governments want access to information found in the cloud. The question is whether it is possible to protect your data from government snooping or not. The answer is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

Governments around the world have ways of gaining access to computer data through both approved and unapproved means. Internet giants such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are now feverishly working to redefine their policies in order to determine when customer data is made available to government entities requesting it. In the meantime, there are a number of software companies developing electronic locks to protect consumer data.

These electronic locks do not necessarily prevent a government entity from requesting and receiving data found in the cloud. Rather, they allow customers to encrypt data so that it is unusable even if accessed. Customers themselves are the only ones with encryption keys; this is done so that even if cloud providers are compelled to turn over data, they cannot decrypt it before doing so. Electronic data locks are not a perfect solution, but they are good start.

Back to all IT network security questions