Canadians vote US top foreign country to host corporate data
An independent survey of 150 British and 150 Canadian businesses has revealed 25 per cent of business are less likely to store their data in the U.S. due to recent revelations about the NSA scandal. Canadian businesses were more likely than the Brits, one out of every three, to move their data out of the U.S.
However, the British and the Canadians still voted the United States as the most popular country to store data outside of their own, by 51 per cent.
The survey, compiled by Vancouver-based managed service provider and data centre Peer 1 Hosting, is the latest piece of evidence that shows the privacy concerns of foreign countries on American datacentres, amid the “summer of Snowden.” Ironically, while security (96 per cent) was shown to be the top concern of Canadian and British businesses, privacy concerns (82 per cent) had made 4th place, following performance and overall reputation.
The decision makers say they don’t fully understand the data and privacy laws of the host country. 60 per cent of businesses say they don’t know enough about the laws, and nearly half (44 per cent) say they are confused by the privacy and security laws.
The latest news stories suggest the NSA can access data held by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other cloud providers, with speculation of backdoor encryption through Level 3 Communications.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation reported the U.S. cloud industry may lose up to $35 billion through 2016 from foreign companies storing data elsewhere.
But the data doesn’t show the decision makers in this survey were surprised by the NSA scandal (81 percent). Furthermore, there is only a 1 per cent drop from Canadians currently using American cloud providers to Canadians considering hosting company data in America in five years (65 per cent to 64 per cent).
Prior to the scandal, 63 per cent of the 150 Canadian business surveyed said they were hosting their data on American servers.
Despite those statistics, only 57 per cent of Canadians say they trust the U.S. to host their company’s data.
Keep your data secure by using a local cloud provider. Quartet’s servers are located in Toronto, Ontario. You can feel safe and confident that our servers comply with Canadian data and privacy regulations.
Click here to find out more.