Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives

Re: Cloud vendor contracts starting to say they own the data you put in their cloud


From: Nathaniel Hall <educause-lists () NATHANIELHALL COM>
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2018 13:25:22 -0500

I've heard it said before that the reason for these "we own data"
clauses" is so they can duplicate data between multiple locations
without your permission, encrypt such data with their own keys, etc.

-
Nathaniel Hall, GSEC GPPA GCIA GCIH GCFA PCNSE
On 9/21/2018 12:42 PM, Nick Lewis wrote:
We’ve seen them as well and include contract language in the NET+
contracts around campuses owning the data. How metadata is handled is
less clear and I would count anonymized/de-identified data in the same
group where the provider might get a license to use it for the operation
of the service, improving the service, etc. If the data can be
re-identified (why is a separate question) makes it customer data again.
The feedback aspect is less clear as universities lawyers have expressed
concerns about if they own the intellectual property of the comment,
campuses express the desire to own the feedback to improve
interoperability, etc. Usually the cloud provider is granted a limited
license to use the feedback.

 

Thanks,

 

Nick

 

 

Nick Lewis, MS, MA, CISSP

Program Manager, Internet2 Cloud Services - Security and Identity

Internet2

nlewis () internet2 edu

 

 

 

*From: *The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv
<SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU> on behalf of Sue McGlashan
<sue.mcglashan () UTORONTO CA>
*Reply-To: *The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv
<SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
*Date: *Friday, September 21, 2018 at 12:46 PM
*To: *"SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU" <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
*Subject: *Re: [SECURITY] Cloud vendor contracts starting to say they
own the data you put in their cloud

 

+1 to Alex.

 

 

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*From: *The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv
<SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU> on behalf of Alex Lindstrom
<aglind () UDEL EDU>
*Reply-To: *The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv
<SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
*Date: *Friday, September 21, 2018 at 12:43 PM
*To: *"SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU" <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
*Subject: *Re: [SECURITY] Cloud vendor contracts starting to say they
own the data you put in their cloud

 

In the same vein as Jason, I've seen vendors propose a few things:

 1. You own your data, but we can use anonymized copies.
 2. We own your feedback, suggestions, and data about your use of the
    service.

I haven't yet seen a vendor propose to own all customer-provided data.
Typically, the two above points are blended such that the customer owns
their actual data, but the vendor can aggregate it for service
management purposes.

 

To Grace's comment: yes, and we often do if it's not already there.
(Usually, the vendor's standard agreement acknowledges that the customer
retains all rights to, title to, and interest in their data.) We also
include clauses that limit the vendor's use of the data to only the
purposes necessary to provide the services.


-----

Alex Lindstrom

IT Security Analyst II

UD IT Security


(302) 831-4823
https://www.udel.edu/security/ <https://www1.udel.edu/security/>

https://sites.udel.edu/threat/

 

 

On Fri, Sep 21, 2018 at 12:28 PM Jason Edelstein <jasone () uchicago edu
<mailto:jasone () uchicago edu>> wrote:

    We see two variants:

    1. We don't own your actual data, but we reserve the right to make
    anonymized copies of your data and use them for anything we want,
    including marketing, etc.

    2. We own your stuff, thanks for uploading.

    We've usually struck clauses of the second type or simply refused to
    sign that contract, where possible. I actually haven't seen one of
    the second type in a while.

    For clauses of the first kind, we've had some success modifying
    contracts to restrict this to only allowing anonymized data for
    support or delivery of the contracted goods and services, but many
    copies complain that they don't have a way to opt us out of their
    Big Data.

    In that case, I've been pondering simply saying that any release of
    data, anonymized or not, that ends up being identifiable information
    is considered a breach. Some have bought that, others have not.

    Jason Edelstein

    IT Risk and Compliance Program Manager

    University of Chicago, IT Services

    desk: 773 834 3457

    security.uchicago.edu <http://security.uchicago.edu> / 773 702 CERT

    On 9/21/2018 11:10 AM, Grace Lynn Faustino wrote:

        Can Universities add the ownership of data clause to the
        contract terms?

         

        ~ Grace L. Faustino

         

        Public Key

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        C847 CBD8

         

        /“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with
        ardor and diligence” ~Abigail Adams/

         

         

         

         

        *From: *The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv
        <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
        <mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU> on behalf of Sue Rivera
        <srivera () CSUB EDU> <mailto:srivera () CSUB EDU>
        *Reply-To: *The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv
        <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
        <mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
        *Date: *Friday, September 21, 2018 at 10:07 AM
        *To: *"SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU"
        <mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
        <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
        <mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
        *Subject: *Re: [SECURITY] Cloud vendor contracts starting to say
        they own the data you put in their cloud

         

        I ran into that recently as well.

         

        Have a breach free day!

         

        Thank you,

        Sue Rivera

        Information Security Analyst, Lead

        Information Technology Services

        California State University, Bakersfield

         

        *From:* The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv
        [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] *On Behalf Of *randy
        *Sent:* Friday, September 21, 2018 9:03 AM
        *To:* SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
        <mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
        *Subject:* [SECURITY] Cloud vendor contracts starting to say
        they own the data you put in their cloud

         

        The subject line  says it all.

         

        We're starting to see clauses in vendor cloud contracts where
        they are stating that they will own any data that we store in
        their cloud. Basically this sounds like cloud vendors are
        starting to adopt the social media sites' approach of "gimme,
        gimme, gimme, it's mine".  Needless to say, this is disturbing
        in so many ways.

         

        Has anyone else run into this?

         

        -Randy Marchany

        VA Tech IT Security Office and Lab.

     



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