RMS and Clipperz Promoting Freedom In the Cloud

mbarulli writes "Clipperz and Richard Stallman recently launched a joint call for action to bring freedom and privacy to web applications. 'The benefits of web apps are many, but quite often users lose their freedom to study, modify and discuss the source code that powers those web apps. Furthermore, we are forced to trust third parties with our data (bookmarks, text documents, chat transcripts, financial info ... and now health records!) that no longer resides on our hard disks, but are stored somewhere in the cloud.' Clipperz and RMS urge web developers to adopt the new AGPL license and build their applications using a 'zero-knowledge architecture,' a framework for web services that has been derived from Clipperz online password manager. A smooth path toward web apps based on free software that know nothing about you and your data."

Sorry, guys

[sm62704]

I can't bring myself to read an article with "cloud" in it unless it's about weather, flying, or sunshine. There is no cloud.

I sure as hell hope it wasn't Stallman who used that ugly yuppified buzzword. Any time you hear one of these incredibly stupid, meaningless buzzwords you know for certain that the word's user is completely ignorant of the subject he is talking about and wants you to think you are the ignorant one.

Re:When I see "Clipperz"...

[pongo000]

Well, looks like I have to eat some crow on this one...from the Clipperz general FAQ:

But then we liked the fact that "clipperZ" sounds like an hacker/anarchist jargon word. To us, it makes fun of the whole original clipper chip concept.

Sorry about that...move along, nothing to see here...

Re:Sorry, guys

[value_added]

Any time you hear one of these incredibly stupid, meaningless buzzwords you know for certain that the word's user is completely ignorant of the subject he is talking about and wants you to think you are the ignorant one.

Normally I'd tend to agree, but I'm afraid you're wrong in this case. From the Wiki cloud [wikipedia.org] article:

The term Cloud Computing derives from the common depiction in most technology architecture diagrams, of the Internet or IP availability, using an illustration of a cloud. Cloud computing gained attention in 2007 as it became a popular solution to the problem of horizontal scalability.

If you're unfamiliar with a typical network diagram looks like, the illustration in this Wiki article [wikipedia.org] should make things clearer.

Re:"I've looked at Cloud from both sides now"

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

You have to be a pretty trusting soul to put business-critical information or private health data under the control of complete strangers, and with security assurances that amount to little more than, "We keep everything strictly private that the US government doesn't want to see", and, "If we screw up, we promise not to screw up again until the next time".

Go to a doctor recently? That's precisely how it works in the USA. The doctor's office keeps the records which they can and do share with your insurance company who can and do share them with a variety of other companies like big pharma. Sure its all 'regulated' by HIPAA but that's as much official cover to share your info as it is protection for your info. Hell, even if you want to pay cash you pretty much have to use a false identity if you want to protect your privacy.