According to Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner (2012) cloud computing refers to the practice of using the Internet to process, manage, and store data on network services. More so, because cloud computing is functional and cheap it is seen as one of the most important tools in online or distance learning. This is because the cloud technology enables online course providers to provide online learning experience to students regardless of their location. Even if cloud-computing is unarguably essential, the school administrators should be aware of its possible downsides.

Being not able to secure the students’ personal information is one of the downsides of using cloud computing in online education. Nevertheless, not everyone is aware of the possibility of this problem. This is because, when people use the internet, not everyone gives too much thought on the repercussions of using it. For instance, not everyone knows that cloud computing has the ability to store the users’ personal information. In connection to this, in using cloud- computing in education, the school administration as well as the students should be properly guided on how to protect their personal information. To illustrate, I learned that in order to come up with strong passphrases I could use KeePass, a passphrase manager that could help me remember unique passphrases. Whenever I make my passphrase before, the first thing that I consider is that I could easily remember it. Nevertheless, I learned that passphrase shall be created with the goal of protecting your own privacy. Accordingly, users shall make it as random as possible so that the hackers would not be able to guess it. In addition to this, school administrators and students shall all be familiar with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Having sufficient knowledge on this act will help the users know whether their rights are being violated or not. There were instances when some cloud-computing services would take advantage of the users’ ignorance to acquire their personal information. Moving forward, the users shall also be encouraged to be vigilant. For example, some would try to steal people’s personal information through creating personality tests (Ng, 2018). The information collected by the “personality” test would then be sold to certain companies for a high price.

To sum up, cloud computing can be considered as both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because this technology enabled education to cope with the current pandemic. Despite its benefits, cloud-computing can also put the students’ privacy at risk. For this reason, the users of cloud technology shall use cloud computing as careful as possible. On last note, I would like to learn more about the due process that people needs to undergo when their Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act is violated. In addition to this, I also would like to know how exactly the users will know that their information are sold and used by other people?

References

Ng, A. (2018, April 11). Whoops! Mark Zuckerberg Says Even His Own Facebook            Data Got Scarfed Up by Third Parties. Retrieved from https://www.cnet.com/news/zuckerberg-facebook-data-was-sold-to-cambridge-analytica-too/

Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner. (2012). Cloud computing guidelines for public bodies. Author.