Increasingly, university and college administrators are contracting out their institutions' operational information technology (IT) needs. Specifically, this means moving from an IT system with a server based at the institution with an in house IT support staff to a cloud based system outside the institution where most of the staff resources are provided by the cloud provider. Many institutions have already moved the operation and management of student email accounts to cloud providers and are increasingly keen to move academic staff emails, records and data to the cloud. The decision of a university to outsource one or several services to cloud providers could have an impact on the privacy of all employees and students. When the university allows a third party provider of services access to employees' personal and professional data or to students' personal and "academic work" data for secondary uses, employees and students could have claims according to privacy laws. Academic staff can challenge access to their professional and personal data by providers of cloud services based on their academic freedom and privacy rights determined by their collective agreement and by laws of general application. Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) is able to assist academic staff associations dealing with institutional officials or agents contemplating or executing members' data to a cloud provider. The following topics on cloud computing are briefly discussed in the briefing note: (1) What is the Cloud?; (2) Why is the Cloud a Problem for Faculty?; and (3) What Can Faculty Associations Do About It? Get Access to the Contract!