Cloud-based services, such as Dropbox|, Doodle|, Google Docs| and Apple's iCloud| offer a number of benefits, including easy access to data, easy collaboration, and in some cases, plenty of storage space. It is important, however, to balance that ease of use and convenience with protecting the School's data. Therefore, cloud-based services should not be used for data which is:
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sensitive personal information as defined by the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998;
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confidential to the School or to a third party;
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of such criticality that functions or operations would be disrupted should it be unavailable, lost, corrupted, stolen or destroyed;
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valuable intellectual property of the School.
If you would like advice as to whether your data falls into one or more of the above categories, or on any data protection issues, please contact pcpd.info.rights@lse.ac.uk|
Many cloud-based services can be accessed via a Web browser alone; however, if you are a member of LSE staff and require a desktop client or plugin to be installed, please contact your user support team|. Installation may take up to ten working days, as these applications do not form part of the School's centrally-managed and supported desktop. Please note that at present, there is no means for the School to purchase cloud-based services or upgrades. We therefore recommend that you use free services and allowances only.
The School accepts no responsibility for the use of third-party cloud-based services. Responsibility and accountability for their use rest entirely with the individual. Going forward, LSE will look, wherever possible, to establish formal agreements between cloud-based service providers, so that better protection of the School's data can be guaranteed.
See also: Key definitions of the Data Protection Act|