someone recently posted to say: it gets worse.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=27935&tag=nl.e539 Pondering a rogue cloud; Will platform providers cave to business, government interests? Posted by Larry Dignan @ 5:01 am
Updated: Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain plays the contrarian when it comes to cloud computing: Is the cloud really the backbone of the future we want?
Zittrain's talk, delivered at the Supernova conference in San Francisco, highlighted one of the biggest rubs with the cloud: We're all slaves to a tethered device that frankly won't be worth much without cloud computing. Consumers trade some freedoms and trust vendors to make decisions for us in exchange for ease of use. And sometimes these vendors will cave to demands from governments and other groups.
Don't buy it? Consider: Christopher Soghoian, a graduate student at Indiana University, has caused a stir. Why? He reckons that "the shift to cloud computing needlessly exposes users to privacy invasion and fraud by hackers." He also notes that Sprint has handed received 8 million law enforcement GPS requests in a year. The Kindle is a tethered appliance that delivers what Amazon wants you to see. And Amazon will cave to publishers on a text-to-speak feature. Who can forget that 1984 incident on the Kindle? Simply put, Amazon can tweak your content. (Zittrain based his presentation on Amazon as CTO Werner Vogels sat and listened). Apple tells you which apps are good for you. An Android eye application? Nope. How about app called Freedom Time that mocked George W. Bush? Nope. The list goes on and on. The FBI can go to OnStar and force the company to put a microphone in the back of a car on to track a suspected perp.
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