There was one post that got a few comments, so I'll try to repost most of those.
Commenter Sandeep said, "Even with diaspora, there are not many people who are actually going to buy and maintain their own server. They will outsource to someone else who has a pod- which leads to the same issues of information gathering, privacy, backups, etc. I am not a diaspora user, so please say if these concerns are nonexistent."
An anonymous reader countered, "Google is not Facebook. Every company has its own motivations and its own people leading them. Google will screw up in completely different ways than Facebook and in different ways than open source projects. None are perfect."
But then commenter Scio gave another vote of confidence to "Diaspora. You can host your own node while keeping your connections with friends over the internet, without giving up your data. It's all encrypted using PGP keys. I think there's a false dichotomy between utilizing the web for data while losing your privacy and keeping everything on a stale hard drive with no flexibility while keeping your privacy. I think it's essential that we reflect on solutions like Amahi, ownCloud, SparkleShare, etc. to make sure that private data owned on the person's own hardware has a place among the services of companies."
Thanks to all those who commented on that post from this past week. I don't have anything planned for this coming week, but I'm sure I'll be able to write about something. Remember, if you like what I write, please continue subscribing, commenting, and sharing!
Facebook, Google+, and Centralized Proprietary Monocultures
Reader tracyanne said, "quote:: No matter who you are, if you plan on uploading pictures to these "cloud" sites, don't delete them from physical storage at home. Always keep backups on hard drives, etc. Because if you put all your eggs in one basket and that basket falls into a black hole, you're sunk. ::quote That advice pretty much applies to anything "in the cloud". You leave yourself vulnerable to pretty much anything "they" want to do, and anything that can go wrong, and run the risk of losing YOUR data when you rely on such "services". The only way you can ensure that your data (photographs, images, writing etc) is safe is to keep a copy on your own computers and keep backups of that."Commenter Sandeep said, "Even with diaspora, there are not many people who are actually going to buy and maintain their own server. They will outsource to someone else who has a pod- which leads to the same issues of information gathering, privacy, backups, etc. I am not a diaspora user, so please say if these concerns are nonexistent."
An anonymous reader countered, "Google is not Facebook. Every company has its own motivations and its own people leading them. Google will screw up in completely different ways than Facebook and in different ways than open source projects. None are perfect."
But then commenter Scio gave another vote of confidence to "Diaspora. You can host your own node while keeping your connections with friends over the internet, without giving up your data. It's all encrypted using PGP keys. I think there's a false dichotomy between utilizing the web for data while losing your privacy and keeping everything on a stale hard drive with no flexibility while keeping your privacy. I think it's essential that we reflect on solutions like Amahi, ownCloud, SparkleShare, etc. to make sure that private data owned on the person's own hardware has a place among the services of companies."
Thanks to all those who commented on that post from this past week. I don't have anything planned for this coming week, but I'm sure I'll be able to write about something. Remember, if you like what I write, please continue subscribing, commenting, and sharing!