Vincent said the study revealed that more than half the contracts looked to overseas jurisdictions for exclusively resolving disputes.
The contracts were split between the US (11), Australia (10), Singapore (2) and Britain (1). This meant that in the case of a dispute, the contract would be settled in a court in which it was formed.
Providers with a strong multinational presence specified the choice of law as being the place where the transaction is performed.
The disadvantage to resolving a dispute in another country are obvious. Australian companies are unlikely to be familiar with law elsewhere and would face the cost and inconvenience of employing a legal team in the chosen country.
If the termination was by the provider or was inadvertent, customers could struggle to access their data
Data location, location, location
Vincent also highlighted the well-known problem of regulatory restrictions on personal data being sent offshore. One problem with cloud services is that because data and computing resources are constantly shifting between locations, even the providers can find it difficult or impossible to say where data or an application is going to reside.
Under the Privacy Act, personal information is data about which the identity of a person can be established. Tough restrictions in large, developed countries have seen the growth of cloud service providers that can guarantee data will remain within the US or the European Union.
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