Should We Trust The Cloud With Our Data?
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30Description
Google's new cloud computing ChromeOS looks like a plan to push people into careless computing by forcing them to store their data in the cloud rather than on machines directly under their control. Making extensive use of cloud computing is worse than stupidity because it means a loss of control of data.
ChromeOS is based on GNU/Linux and designed to store the minimum possible data locally. Instead it relies on a data connection to link to Google's cloud of servers, which are at unknown locations, to store documents and other information.
The risks include loss of legal rights to data if it is stored on a company's machine's rather than your own. In the US, users even lose legal rights if they store their data in a company's machines instead of their own.
ChromeOS is based on GNU/Linux and designed to store the minimum possible data locally. Instead it relies on a data connection to link to Google's cloud of servers, which are at unknown locations, to store documents and other information.
The risks include loss of legal rights to data if it is stored on a company's machine's rather than your own. In the US, users even lose legal rights if they store their data in a company's machines instead of their own.
Why this speaker?
Richard Matthew Stallman is a software developer and software freedom activist. In 1983 he announced the project to develop the GNU operating system, a Unix-like operating system meant to be entirely free software, and has been the project's leader ever since. With that announcement Stallman also launched the Free Software Movement. In October 1985 he started the Free Software Foundation.
The GNU/Linux system, which is a variant of GNU that also uses the kernel Linux developed by Linus Torvalds, are used in tens or hundreds of millions of computers, and are now preinstalled in computers available in retail stores. However, the distributors of these systems often disregard the ideas of freedom which make free software important.
That is why, since the mid-1990s, Stallman has spent most of his time in political advocacy for free software, and spreading the ethical ideas of the movement, as well as campaigning against both software patents and dangerous extension of copyright laws. Before that, Stallman developed a number of widely used software components of the GNU system, including the original Emacs, the GNU Compiler Collection, the GNU symbolic debugger (gdb), GNU Emacs, and various other programs for the GNU operating system.
Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft, and is the main author of the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license.
Stallman gives speeches frequently about free software and related topics. Common speech titles include "The GNU Operating System and the Free Software movement", "The Dangers of Software Patents", and "Copyright and Community in the Age of the Computer Networks". A fourth common topic consists of explaining the changes in version 3 of the GNU General Public License, which was released in June 2007.
In 1999, Stallman called for development of a free on-line encyclopedia through the means of inviting the public to contribute articles.
Stallman graduated from Harvard in 1974 with a BA in physics. During his college years, he also worked as a staff hacker at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, learning operating system development by doing it. He wrote the first extensible Emacs text editor there in 1975. He also developed the AI technique of dependency-directed backtracking, also known as truth maintenance. In January 1984 he resigned from MIT to start the GNU project.
The GNU/Linux system, which is a variant of GNU that also uses the kernel Linux developed by Linus Torvalds, are used in tens or hundreds of millions of computers, and are now preinstalled in computers available in retail stores. However, the distributors of these systems often disregard the ideas of freedom which make free software important.
That is why, since the mid-1990s, Stallman has spent most of his time in political advocacy for free software, and spreading the ethical ideas of the movement, as well as campaigning against both software patents and dangerous extension of copyright laws. Before that, Stallman developed a number of widely used software components of the GNU system, including the original Emacs, the GNU Compiler Collection, the GNU symbolic debugger (gdb), GNU Emacs, and various other programs for the GNU operating system.
Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft, and is the main author of the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license.
Stallman gives speeches frequently about free software and related topics. Common speech titles include "The GNU Operating System and the Free Software movement", "The Dangers of Software Patents", and "Copyright and Community in the Age of the Computer Networks". A fourth common topic consists of explaining the changes in version 3 of the GNU General Public License, which was released in June 2007.
In 1999, Stallman called for development of a free on-line encyclopedia through the means of inviting the public to contribute articles.
Stallman graduated from Harvard in 1974 with a BA in physics. During his college years, he also worked as a staff hacker at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, learning operating system development by doing it. He wrote the first extensible Emacs text editor there in 1975. He also developed the AI technique of dependency-directed backtracking, also known as truth maintenance. In January 1984 he resigned from MIT to start the GNU project.
Questions answered
Is cloud computing better described as careless computing? Why?
What are the legal implications of moving to the cloud?
Who controls the data in the cloud?
What are the legal implications of moving to the cloud?
Who controls the data in the cloud?