Looks like one more reason NOT to do the "Cloud" thing...

[seawasp]

Apparently the government wants to claim that if you store your data in the cloud, you've given up your rights to it.

I never saw the point of the Cloud bit; I want my data WITH me, not dependent on being wirelessly connected to some distant server.

Comments

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

Paranoia is a good thing, when I first heard of the Cloud, my first thought is that anyone can hack it without even busting your computer.

[ebartley.livejournal.com]

The advantage to storing data in the cloud is that you can access it on multiple computers. (E.g. desktop and laptop, or work and home, or wife's computer and husband's computer, or some combination of the above.) it also clones automatically to share contents.

I set up several google calendars for our family so that my husband and I can see each other's days off, mostly so that I can see his days off (he works a ten-line schedule rotating around the week.) After some setup, this information is available on my google calendar, my Android phone, and his Android phone. (Theoretically his google calendar too but I don't know if he's ever used it.) I can make a change on my vacation schedule or the family events calendar and it just automatically appears on his schedule even if I forget to mention it to him.

There are disadvantages too, but you were puzzling about the point of the Cloud.

[seawasp]

I guess I can see that.

[groblek.livejournal.com]

We use it that way with our assorted Apple devices. As far as I can tell, it's not that the data is reliant on a connection to a remote server - we still have access to a local copy when disconnected, but changes then will sync to all our devices, and there's a remote backup in case of failure. I find it a useful addition to our mildly paranoid backup system, but would never give up keeping a local copy too. I find the article you linked to appalling, but sadly not a surprise; the government has already been making that claim about email stored on a remote server.

[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

If my ebooks are on the cloud, then I can read them from my home computer, from my work computer, from my laptop... I put it in a directory and it's automatically copied to my other computers.

And I don't need to have wireless to use them - I only need wireless for the files to be automatically copied over, and there's a _lot_ of wireless out there, easily enough for me to get 5 minutes of data downloaded.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Client-server computing, aka thin-client computing: a computing model where your data resides on, and applications run on, servers that you (or your school or employer or whatever) own, control and maintain. We've had client-server computing for almost as long as we've had digital computers.

Cloud computing: client-server computing where you give to a total stranger your checkbook and credit cards, the keys to your house and, if you're really gung-ho about it, custody of your children.

None of us need cloud storage. A Mac mini or a netbook -- small, quiet, low-power -- with an always-on broadband connection and an SSH server can do everything your Apple or Amazon or whatever shiny thing does. It may not be as slick as Apple's shiny but it works, it's reliable (as reliable as your ISP and power company, anyway), and most importantly you control your data. You're not putting it into someone else's hands.

My ebooks and music and mail and stuff are on a little server at home. I know where they are, I can get at them almost any time I please, and I'm not held hostage by whatever storage provider the government decides to shut down next week.