Should Cloud Vendors Decrypt Data For The Government? (helpnetsecurity.com)

An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes an article by Help Net Security's editor-in-chief: More than one in three IT pros believe cloud providers should turn over encrypted data to the government when asked, according to Bitglass and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). 35 percent believe cloud app vendors should be forced to provide government access to encrypted data while 55 percent are opposed. 64 percent of US-based infosec professionals are opposed to government cooperation, compared to only 42 percent of EMEA respondents.
Raj Samani, CTO EMEA at Intel Security, told Help Net Security the answers ranged from "no way, to help yourself, and even to I don't care..." But since vendors can't satisfy both camps, he believes the situation "demands some form of open debate on the best approach to take..."

Comments

Re:Turn over: yes. Decrypt: no

[SvnLyrBrto]

Yes, But that's a known limitation of gmail. And if you're using the service, you've accepted that limitation.

Besides, it's a limitation that can be mitigated. Gmail allows access by standalone IMAP clients. So you can use whatever GPG-enabled client you like, on a computer running with full-disk encryption, and go ahead and use gmail. Google will know who you're talking to, but not what you're saying. And you would still be able to search your mailboxes locally.