Computerworld — Google (GOOG) may have threatened to leave China to keep us all from concluding that "the cloud" cannot be secured. If that's true, isn't that precisely what we should conclude?

Cloud Security: Ten Questions to Ask Before You Jump In

After all, if Google's security systems were breached, wouldn't they just fix the flaw and keep their mouths shut? If they thought they could protect their data and yours, wouldn't they have just done so and not said anything?

In other words, the whole Google-in-China issues boils down to this: Google may have realized that they cannot guarantee the security of their secrets -- or yours.

It seems that all our data is moving to the cloud -- especially for mobile computing users. Is it time to rethink cloud computing?

Threat: Insecure guardians of private data

What does Google know about you? Depending on which Google services you use, Google might know your exact location, what your e-mail says, what you buy online, what your schedule is, who you know, what your credit-card numbers are, where you live, where all your friends and family live, what your interests are, what you read, what your voicemails say, who you talk to on the phone, your detailed health conditions and health history, and much more.

Google even offers a service called Google Email Uploader , which makes a copy of all your e-mail from Outlook or other desktop utilities and puts it into Google Apps, where it's backed up and searchable. They also now offer a service whereby you can upload any file to Google Apps. Now even pre-cloud personal data is moving to the cloud.

Theoretically, all this personal information is safe. Although Google "knows" all your information, no human would ever read it. Besides, do you trust Google with your information? It's a big question, but I would have to answer that in fact, yes, I do.

Unfortunately, if the China event tells us that the cloud cannot be secured, it doesn't matter if we trust Google. We would have to trust both hackers and anyone they might sell our private data to.

Review that list of what Google "knows" about you. Now imagine what others could do with that information: insurance companies, our government, "their" government, marketers, predatory financial services companies -- not to mention blackmailers, identity thieves and extortionists.

Of course, hacking is nothing new. A recent survey found that more than half of IT executives report "high level" attacks on their companies. The difference with cloud computing is that a cloud service like Google could be one-stop shopping for hackers. If they hack one company, they have one company. But if that company is Google, they have everybody.

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