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Who OWNS the data ??

MarkBlaise
Level 2

Once my data is in the possession of your company, what assurances can you provide which address potential data ownership issues? How can I delete or remove information from the online store?

 

I’ve read through lots of your promotional materials, and the issue of data ownership does not appear to be addressed at all.

 

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MarkBlaise
Level 2

Yes Richard, that does answer my question, thank you.

 

Maybe I'm just a bit paranoid, but it seems to me that once my data is out of my possession, and in the possession of another company, the question of ownership becomes open, along with the more usual stuff of how I can control it, retrieve it, etc.

 

It would be great if this point - that customers of your service retain full and complete ownership and intellectual property rights of the their data that is stored on your severs - was made clearly in your product materials (aside from buried in the T&C). Otherwise, without an explicit and clear statement, one might presume that "possession is 9/10 of the law" ... :)

 

Cheers

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2 REPLIES 2

Richard_Goodwin
Level 4
Certified

Mark,

 

I want to make sure that I address your question, so if this post doesn't cover it, please let me know any additional clarification you need.

 

First and foremost is the issue of data privacy. We use private key encryption, AES256bit, to secure all data before it leaves your endpoint computers, and it is never decrypted in flight (being transmitted over the internet) or in our back end storage (stored on disk in our data centers).

 

The face that we use a "private key", where the secret passphrase required to decrypt your data is known ONLY to you, means that Symantec (or anyone with nefarious intent on the internet), has no access to your data. When you restore data, it is only decrypted at the destination endpoint, when it is in your environment. It remains your data, not ours, and not anyone else's. 

 

At no point does Symantec make a claim to own the data, or to have the rights (or even the capabilities) to decrypt and make use of your data for any purpose. Even in the event of a security compromise or request from legal entities, your data remains encrypted and unusable to anyone but yourself. When you leave the service, your data is removed from our storage and can not be retrieved, even if we wanted to. 

 

This topic is covered (admittedly in more legalese) in the Terms and Conditions that you agree to when signing up for the service. I think you have made a great point though that we would do well to post something a bit more public/lengthy about this on our website. 

 

Does this help answer your questions? 

 

Thanks,

Richard Goodwin

SPN Product Management

 

Message Edited by Richard Goodwin on 09-10-2008 08:04 AM

MarkBlaise
Level 2

Yes Richard, that does answer my question, thank you.

 

Maybe I'm just a bit paranoid, but it seems to me that once my data is out of my possession, and in the possession of another company, the question of ownership becomes open, along with the more usual stuff of how I can control it, retrieve it, etc.

 

It would be great if this point - that customers of your service retain full and complete ownership and intellectual property rights of the their data that is stored on your severs - was made clearly in your product materials (aside from buried in the T&C). Otherwise, without an explicit and clear statement, one might presume that "possession is 9/10 of the law" ... :)

 

Cheers