Consideration of a proposal to move the City of Los Angles’ email (opens in new tab) and other computer applications to a system run by Internet giant Google (opens in new tab) was postponed this week.
A report from the City Administrative Officer of the $7.25 million proposal was to have been discussed at City Council’s Information Technology and General Services committee meeting Tuesday. The plan would move email and many other applications from city-owned and controlled computers to Google servers. The servers would be accessed via the Internet. Such a system is often called "cloud computing. (opens in new tab)"
With two committee members — Councilman Bernard Parks (opens in new tab) and Councilman Herbert Wesson (opens in new tab) — absent, Chairman Tony Cardenas (opens in new tab)announced the issue would be held over for two weeks.
The controversial plan envisions moving the city’s 30,000 email users to Google servers, along with many documents. The Los Angeles Police Department (opens in new tab) has expressed concerns about security if the city makes the move. Both Tim Riley, (opens in new tab) chief of the LAPD Information & Communications Services Bureau and his boss, Assistant Chief Sharon Papa (opens in new tab) were there to answer questions.
Meanwhile, in a letter to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (opens in new tab), Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum (opens in new tab) warned about the plan. She wrote: (opens in new tab)
"We believe that the City of Los Angeles has rushed into this without enough careful consideration of all of the consequences, and without enough attention to the details of protecting the privacy of the data contractually. We urge the City of Los Angeles to conduct a thorough analysis and risk assessment of all privacy and other confidentiality impacts that may occur, and we urge the City to protect its residents and itself from the many potential unintended consequences."
A letter to the committee from Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearing House (opens in new tab) also expressed concerns. She asked (opens in new tab):
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- "Is a cloud environment going to provide sufficient protection for such sensitive information?
- "Does the City’s stewardship role in regard to personal information preclude movement of personal information to a cloud environment?"
She urged that the City consider "a rigorous privacy and security impact assessment " about the cloud computing proposal including "a thorough risk analysis."
I had planned to testify (opens in new tab) that "rushing headlong onto Google’s cloud will only ensure stormy weather in Los Angeles."
One thing is certain, most of us there on Tuesday will be back in two weeks.
