How your organisation can protect its ICIP using the cloud

Currently in Australia, Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property (ICIP) is only somewhat protected by Australian Intellectual Property law. This can be difficult for Indigenous communities - who hold highly valuable data about place, natural resources, culture and history - to ensure their knowledge is adequately protected, compensated and if shared, used in a way deemed fit by the community the information came from.

Due to the vague legislation and laws surrounding ICIP, the onus to protect it unfortunately falls on each individual community and organisation. While this news may be discouraging at first, help is available! Below, we’ve addressed some common misconceptions about the cloud and suggestions for you and your organisation to explore if you would like to proactively protect your ICIP using cloud technology.

Read our previous blog to find out more about Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property and how it protects traditional knowledge.

What is the cloud?

When people use the term ‘the cloud’ they are referring to remote services, accessible via the internet which can be used for managing and storing data, or running applications and software remotely. While your own computer may have limited capability and capacity - through a cloud provider like Google or AWS you can run applications, stream content, and manage and store data using their equipment regardless of your computers specifications.

Drone imagery processing is a great example of an activity that can be more easily accomplished using cloud technology. In 2021, Winyama used AWS Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) to increase the accessibility of OpenDroneMap for Indigenous Mapping Workshop (IMW) participants. In this case, Winyama used an auto-scaling approach, allowing IMW learners to complete multiple drone image processing tasks at once—a task that would not be possible if OpenDroneMap software was running on a single computer server. Big-name companies like Fulcrum even use the cloud to host their application’s workloads. It is highly likely that you are already familiar with, and using the cloud in your day-to-day life, whether that’s through Google workspace applications like Docs, Sheets and Slides or via streaming services like Netflix, Stan or Disney Plus. 

Is the cloud safe?

Feeling cautious about the security of your ICIP in the cloud is normal. It does demand a level of trust because you are allowing another entity to guard your data. However, this should not be a cause for alarm. Here’s why.

Maintaining your ICIP on your own computer or on a hard drive is not without its risks. Nowadays, hackers can use malware and phishing emails to gain access to your data - even if it only exists on your own device. Computers or laptops can overheat and crash, and data can be copied and stolen if passwords are not protected.

Using a reputable cloud provider means you are trusting experts in cloud security. This means your ICIP is going to be protected by strong data encryption, guards who are deployed 24/7 at physical facilities where the servers that store your data are kept, and online, where threats from hackers exist. Reputable cloud providers are using the best equipment and have back ups, systems, and protocols in place in the unlikely event that something does go wrong.

Why is the cloud a great solution for protecting ICIP?

The cloud is a great solution not only for keeping your ICIP safe, but also for managing and sharing it in the modern day. This is because most cloud services offer you fine-grain levels of control. Fine-grain levels of control make it easy for you to regulate who (if anyone) has access to your data, how they have access and for how long.

For example, if you had a recording by an Elder in your community, sharing cultural information about a site, where they spoke in language or shared songs and you wanted this information to be accessible, but only by people within your community - that would be possible with the cloud. Perhaps you want to restrict access further - making the information only available to other Elders of your community. This would also be achievable using cloud technology. It is even possible for permissions to be created that are based on traditional knowledge labels or tailored to suit the ICIP protocol your community or organisation is already using.

There are many ways you can customise cloud storage products and nowadays, many skilled professionals like us at Winyama to help you do so.

As a team of Traditional Owners, Winyama understands the importance of safeguarding ICIP and the value it has to Australia’s First Nations people and wider society. If you would like to learn more about the cloud and how it could be adopted to suit your organisation’s requirements, our team would love to help!