Is Migrating Data Online Safe?

That was the gist of question I asked Google's CEO Eric Schmidt earlier on. The answer (now featured at the Times Online) I got back from him was as follows:

Keith,

Let me say first that cloud computing is the future. But the concerns that people have about security in cloud computing are understandable: some people like to be able to see their computer server to know that's exactly where their data is. It's somewhat parallel to the banking system: early on, people believed that their money was safer under their mattress than in a bank, but all the systems and rules that have evolved over time do not support that belief.

You can look at cloud computing in a similar way. We have built and continue to build a lot of security protection into our applications to protect your privacy and your information. Consider also that if you put your data on one drive in your home and it gets stolen or damaged, then you have lost it permanently - I remember reading various articles in the British press about government officials losing sensitive data on laptops, CDs, memory sticks and the like.

As well as trying very hard to ensure your data is kept private and secure, we also recognize that you want to own your own data. We actually have an initiative called Data Liberation that is dedicated to making sure you can export your personal information — your mail, contacts, photos and so forth — from any Google property anytime you want, and take it with you to another service.

The original question was: "Cloud computer is seen as the future of computing but many are still not convinced by the security measures taken by companies to protect data privacy. How do you think the web can be more made secure and safe for everyone to migrate data online?"