Electronic Frontier

First there was the telegraph, then came the switched telephone systems. Parallel to these telecommunication systems there were developments in the field of computing. They evolved from behemoths like ENIAC to the computers that were within the reach of normal consumers due to invention of transistors and IC.

A simple device knows as Modem http://tinyurl.com/mpsan merged the two, and foundations of information revolution were laid. The age of global village, connected people, connected world. But where this revolution has given us many things it has also taken one think very dear to us, in fact we have gladly sacrificed it for the pleasured we get in return that is PRIVACY

In the times of Web 1.0 email or our credit card details was the only things we had to worry about. After the first Internet bubble burst, a plethora of services were launched that stored our data of one kind or the other. From keeping our schedule, contacts, our favorite sites even to our backup data.

Next came the concept of cloud, Internet computing and on line application service providers. This means that from now on instead of installing applications we will go on line, and access applications ranging from productivity suites like Google docs to even payroll application. Result is that now even the data like our documents which were on our own computers are now in the cloud. Lets not forget social media too, sites offering to host our pictures videos so we can share with friends and then the amalgamation of these the community sites, which kept us friends too :)

but the big question is

“DO YOU TRUST THE CLOUD”

Have you ever thought the how these companies make money, ADS. Not just plan old ads, but the brand new shiny more money milking customized Ads.

What customized actually means? Take the example of Google, few years ago a startup launched by a couple of college students now one of the largest companies of IT and direct competitor to Microsoft and Apple, the companies much older then Google. The reason behind their explosive growth ADS, their ad sense http://tinyurl.com/olfo8 network integrated with their awesome crawler search engine ( give credit where due). At first they only customized ads according to your search terms, since then they have launched they email, video sharing, photo sharing, blogging and a host of other services. So what customized actually means

Google can look at your browsing history, cookies, favorites, email subject and bodies, the kind of videos and picture you host and you search for, the books you read, your search interest. All of this are for them the way to throw more ads at you. Oh my God, why so much information, some of it you may not want to share with your friends and family and you are sharing it with Google The thing is will Google be trusted enough to keep it safe from prying eyes, not to sell it, not to save it, and is there a possibility of this information to be used in the court of law.

Well now the reality crunch, they sell it, it may get hacked, they save it and on they may use it in the court of law. http://tinyurl.com/lu2y7w

Another recent example i found in the guise of facilitating you to keep you information is facebook.com. Though its a power full site, and really innovative but to use it fully you have to give it all your email address with user names and password, meaning that it will have access to all your correspondence and even your mobile number. They only thing that may not be on the cloud will be my DNA unless i submit it for profiling too :o

If i don't trust th cloud what could I do ???

It all depends upon how concerned you are,

• you could make you own mail server too, there are good free and cheap mail server.

• Install you own applications instead of relaying on clouds

• Make friends by physical networking not the virtual one, it would be more rewarding too

• use physical media to share you virtual media

• opt out of as much sign ins as you can

I may add more to it as i come along, and do add your comments