Breadcrumbs and Clouds
Something got me thinking recently about what online presence means these days. It seems to me that most feel the urge to be part of the social networks craze. I must admit I’ve been as guilty as sin, but to me it’s been mainly to stay updated about new internet development and changes. Social networks unfortunately have become a major part of it.
Like all things in life online presence has its pros and cons but lately I’ve run into more cons than pros. Watching ‘The Net’ the other day, made me realise that although at the time [1995...] this movie was quite progressive it still holds some actual truth in it. I loved it back then, I love it nowadays and not just because they show some decent ‘ol Macs in each ‘computer shot’ 
Mind the cool 3 1/2-inch floppy discs!!! Aaaah the sound of those when ejected… 
*got a tad sidetracked there, sorry…*
I guess the fact that more and more info seems to be gathered online is what is causing my concern. So I’ve decided a while ago to adjust the digital breadcrumb trail that I’d left on the net and delete all accounts except for three of them. The pros of these three are the fact that I do get the benefits of networking: mainly work related though. But to me, that’s all there is to it. I don’t share personal info since it’s personal for a reason and I’d like to keep it that way. I realise it will be impossible to move away from it completely but at least I still have some control over what is out there and who has access to it.
Which brings me to the main reason that got me thinking. It was a discussion I had with someone close {family} about the development of networks in general, security issues and the fact that more and more companies are changing to cloud computing. To me that is something I would not take into consideration if I had a choice about whether to introduce it into my personal life or not. Call me paranoid if you like but I think I’m extremely realistic: it would be no option. I’d rather have ten noisy peripherals somewhere stashed away than having to trust someone else with all of my data, whatever data that is.
If I see that my ISP already refuses to do something about the issues I mentioned in a previous post than how am I supposed to trust some virtual server somewhere out there to be safe from attacks? It’s just not realistic believing that it is foolproof, is it? Ignorance is bliss… but in this case I refuse to turn a blind eye. Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for changes and improvement but I do feel some should become more aware of the kind of risks that are involved before making certain decisions. What happened to Sony is a good example and trust me, it ain’t gonna stop there, that’s probably just the start of it.
Mark my words ‘the Cloud’ is going to be the next media hype…
