This topic collects and provides information relating the usage of external cloud services at ETH. If not else confirmed, any data, uploaded on an external cloud provider, gets basically stored in a data center that can be located everywhere on the world. This aspects collide with the ETH compliance regulations that describes some stipulations regarding different classes of data. A further aspect of using external cloud providers is, that a direct dependency exists with an external provider which may lead into a lack of control over the data on your side (data owner).
Current Source of Information
The following guides and leaflets provides information about using cloud storage as an ETH member.
Compliance Guide (Page 22, Chapter: It security and data protection)
English: https://rechtssammlung.sp.ethz.ch/Dokumente/133en.pdf
German: https://rechtssammlung.sp.ethz.ch/Dokumente/133.pdf
Leaflet on Cloud Computing:
English: download link
German: download link
Guidelines for Research Integrity and Good Scientific Practice at the ETH Zurich ( (Art. 11 Para. 4)
English: https://rechtssammlung.sp.ethz.ch/Dokumente/414en.pdf?Web=1
German: https://rechtssammlung.sp.ethz.ch/Dokumente/414.pdf?Web=1
Consulting
If you are unsure about your use-case and whether your data can be stored and processed with external cloud services, please do not hesitate to contact us. We can help you to clarify your individual use-case and we can involve our legal department if needed to support us.
Future
Cloud services have gotten very important for our daily collaborative work. To work in the cloud in a carefree way, a workgroup has been founded at ETH including our legal department to define detailed guidelines relating the use of external cloud providers. We keep you informed on that!
