The European Union has been looking at how to regulate cloud computing for months, and Viviane Reding, justice commissioner for the EU, said the old legislation needs to be changed to account for cloud technology.

“These technological advances in 2011 represent one of the biggest challenges to data protection and data security of our citizens,” she said. “This is why we have to equip ourselves now and for the future. And this is why we have to adapt our current, European legislation on data protection, which is more than 15 years old, so that it meets these new challenges and any new situations.”

Reding is working with Neelie Kroes, EU commissioner for the digital agenda, to draft laws for reform in the old speech of the laws. The first thing she wants to make clear is that customers have ownership of their data, adding that citizens must be in a position to make informed decisions at all times and companies must ensure transparency.

Features need to be built into products from the start, Reding said, asking companies to invest more in cloud computing security. CloudPro said current laws in the U.K. only mention that public companies have to report breaches to the Information Commissioner. Reding wants all companies report breaches.