Cloud providers and proprietary data

Question

I have read the terms and conditions of my cloud service and they "reserve the right to monitor abusive or offensive usage", but I would like to know if they can spy on my proprietary data and use or sell it.

Answer 1

What they can do with your data depends entirely on the TOS. There might be a provision that allows them to peer into your data for analytic purposes; there might even be a provision allowing them to copy and sell your data. Your baseline protection is copyright law: in order to copy your data (basically, do anything with it other than store it and make a backup of the server), you need to grant them permission. In searching for that information, look expansively at such things as "privacy policy", for example the Gmail TOS is itself fairly minimal ("you agree that Google can use such data in accordance with our privacy policies"), because it refers you to their privacy policy document. Box says

You hereby grant Box and its contractors the right to transmit, use and disclose Content posted on the Service solely to the extent necessary to provide the Service, as otherwise permitted by these Terms, or to comply with any request of a governmental or regulatory body (including subpoenas or court orders), as otherwise required by law, or to respond to an emergency which Box believes in good faith requires Box to disclose information to assist in preventing the death or serious bodily injury of any person.

So you have to read the fine print.