A multimillion-dollar proposal to overhaul the computer network used by thousands of Los Angeles city workers raised concerns Thursday about the security of confidential information kept by the Police Department and other agencies.
The nation’s second-largest city is considering dumping its in-house computer network for Google Inc. e-mail and office programs that are accessed over the Internet. At issue is the security of computerized records on everything from police investigations to potholes.
Read more from the Associated Press on SanLuisObispo.com.
The story quotes Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum, who raises a number of concerns that the city does not seem to have adequately considered nor planned for. Indeed, the idea of the entire city’s databases with personally identifiable information being up in the cloud is downright frightening to privacy advocates who point out that no how much Google may attempt to keep everything secure, the risks of compromise, access, or acquisition of sensitive data are enormous.
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