FTC Worries About Consumers, Cloud Data, and Privacy 175
pcause writes "Ars Techina has a nice article about the FTC's concern that consumers don't understand the implications of storing their data in the cloud. From the article: 'Data is now sitting on servers outside of your control, where it can be accessed far more easily by Google itself, hackers, and law enforcement than it ever could if kept within the device. Once data passes over the network, it gets much easier to access in realtime; once it is stored on a remote server, it gets much easier to access at any time. And those are just the phone settings. Google also has access to search history data, anything stored in Google Docs or Spreadsheets, complete schedules stored in Google Calendar, and recent Maps searches. Combine them all, and companies like Google become one-stop shops for authorities looking for personal information.' Do you think the average consumer even has a clue about this issue?"
Woah (Score:3, Funny)
I'm just shocked the FTC is seemingly saying that easy access for law enforcement is a good thing.
Sanity in a government agency?! Cats and dogs living together? Mass hysteria?
Re:We'll be right back after this from the cloud. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I was just thinking about this today (Score:2, Funny)
If you continue to worry, smash the device to destroy the secret battery.
You are mistaken. Only after melting the device in the fiery lava flows of Mount Doom will it truly be safe.
Re:They can know about you, do you know about them (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, even if they have access to the terminal, they may not have access to the data if you have separate logins... of course, I tried something like this with my ex, once; it didn't work out real well. Separate computers turned out to be easier.
Of course, this only works if you're running a real OS. If you use Misro$oft Win/DOS, well, best of luck.
Even if your SO insists on having access to your user account and password, unless she's *NIX savvy you can always bury stuff in /usr/local/bin/whatever_arcane_sounding_subdirectory, make root the owner, and set permissions to rwx------.
If you're really worried, put the data on a separate partition, and use /etc/fstab to keep it from mounting, make an alias from the mount command to a shellscript that quietly wipes that partition, and overwrites it with garbage, unless you mount it with the correct alternate command...
Yeah, guess I'm a little paranoid.
~Hal
If you're worried about your privacy, don't forget to rm -rf /home/[username]/.macromedia everytime you logout.
Re:use encryption (Score:3, Funny)