Security concerns haunt Swiss government cloud data plans

Fresh criticism has been leveled at the inclusion of Chinese company Alibaba in a future cloud storage system for Swiss government data. The Tages Anzeiger newspaper has uncovered documents that detail the concerns of Swiss Data Protection Commissioner Adrian Lobsiger during the tender process. Last summer, the government awarded the CHF110 million ($120 million) contract to United States companies Amazon, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle - plus Alibaba. Lobsiger has already voiced criticism in the media that some of his privacy concerns were not properly addressed by the government. On Saturday, the Tages Anzeiger revealed documents that detailed his recommendations before the contract was awarded. Lobsiger had called for more stringent privacy requirements to be inked into the deals. These included a demand that centres be located either in Switzerland or a country with equivalent data protection rules. The data watchdog also wanted contractors to submit to audits and regular...