Why isn't black box data recorded via cloud technology?

I've been reading about airline disasters, and how it's always a race against time to locate a black box from an aircraft that has fallen in an ocean. In one case of the Air France disaster, the black box was not found until nearly 3 years later!

My question is why isn't the data from the black boxes transmitted and stored via cloud so that in the event it can't be located, it's already backed up anyway in cloud storage?

Probably because of the cost of updating so many planes to a new technology.

"Cloud" connectivity, as generally described, needs a mobile network. Last I looked, there weren't a lot of cell phone towers in the ocean.

What you need is satellite connectivity. We're already seeing maintenance data that often duplicates some of the flight data recorder information going that way. But there isn't enough satellite capacity to replace the cockpit voice recorder, which requires several channels of high quality audio.

We may get there. But not yet.

Probably not needed. Airlines do have the capability to track aircraft position via satellite tracking. But as in the case of Fl 370, the airline didn't subscribe to the service. If they did, the position of the aircraft would be known and they could recover the black box. I'm not sure, but I thought this was a subscription service that airlines and to pay for. With many, many aircraft int he air, individual airlines would have a significant cost vs benefit ratio to justify. It would be beneficial for extended flights over oceans, but not over land.

When a plane is traveling is goes in & out of contact with the satellites that receive the broadcast information.