"Cloud storage" refers to any Internet-based system where you can store information. There are plenty of cloud storage solutions which the university either does not provide or has not put a legal agreement in place (in most cases, UNT legal agreements enable us to hold the provider accountable instead of you). We term all such solutions as "non-UNT provider systems." CAS ITS does not support these services; however, we'd like to make sure that anyone who uses them is aware of potential privacy problems.
Many web sites and systems use cloud storage to enable their primary service (e.g., email) to work. While these services may not announce that they use cloud services, if you can put some information on the site and access that same information from other places and at other times - chances are a cloud system is backing up the data.
Here are some examples of popular services which use "cloud storage" solutions:
Files | Social | Other | |
---|---|---|---|
Dropbox | Gmail | YouTube | |
iCloud | Hotmail | Google+ | Google Apps |
Google Drive |
You want the ability to work with your documents the way you see fit, and may not appreciate someone else using your information without permission. Likewise, since governments, institutions, companies, and people own information, UNT wants to ensure you know who owns, manages the information, and ensure all the information owners agree how to store and access the information.
Once you learn who actually "owns" the information--the answer may surprise you.