Twenty Legal Considerations for Clouds of Things

Abstract

This paper provides a survey of key legal questions arising in the EU at the intersection of cloud computing and the Internet of Things, which we term “Clouds of Things”. We consider implications for both organisations and individuals by reference to 20 specific legal and regulatory considerations.

The purpose of this paper is to give a broad perspective on legal and regulatory aspects of Clouds of Things, and to highlight the major problems and complexities that have arisen already, or are likely to do so soon. There has been much comment and speculation elsewhere on specific legal concerns, mainly related to privacy aspects. Indeed, given the potentially pervasive impact of Clouds of Things, the scope for legal and regulatory complexity also seems boundless. Our contribution is to provide a systematic outline of the main EU legal and regulatory issues in relation to Clouds of Things, in the hope that this will inform the debate and set the scene for further research.

Keywords: cloud, cloud computing, IoT, Internet of Things, clouds of Things, law, technology, policy

JEL Classification: K2, K12, K13, K14, K20, K21, K23, K33, K39, K42, L5, O30, O31, O32, O33, O34, O38