@MaxIT... what do you think? Are you still gonna use iCloud?
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Apple Inks Deal to Use Google Cloud Platform for Some iCloud Services
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Isn't the data encrypted before it leaves your device? Google won't be able to read it anymore than Apple can.
You realize the government uses public cloud services for all kinds of sensitive information, right? Security isn't an issue if the data is encrypted when uploaded. Since it's stored in many different places and on many different servers it's very difficult to get at, even with the encryption keys. If you have 1/4 of a file, even the encryption key isn't going to let you get at it as you'd have to somehow recreate the rest of it and then decrypt it.
Pretty much every cloud backup service does it this way, including CrashPlan which does backups for Fortune 500 companies.
Perhaps you should finally take a hint - your worries are overblown. Obviously when a company leases servers from Google, Google does not have access (either physically or contractually) to the customer data. It is also true that Google is not a threat to your digital life. In reality, there have been more reported cases of Apple customer digital lives being endangered (due to flawed software and/or practices) than that of Google customers. I have yet to see a single account of Google "selling" customer data.
This is the key piece most everyone here seems to be missing.
This thread is basically a bunch of people that don't understand how encryption works nor do they understand how cloud storage really works.
Funny that they trust the encryption on their phone and the locally stored files even though we've been selling a product to the government since 2008 that can break it.
Both of us could be correct. It is possible that the initial contract price for such a large client like Apple might be low but the idea always is to lure the customer first then get the profits. In general though, AWS is quite profitable and it is one of the reasons Amazon share prices did so well recently.
Really? I use Apple Maps all the time and have no problems with it. I use Google Maps occasionally and don't see an enormous difference. Yes, it had problems when it launched, but have you tried it lately?
How so. iCloud isn't encrypted now and also Apple handed over all the iCloud data it had. If Apple starts encrypting iCloud then there won't be a backdoor to that either. So, no it doesn't solve any backdoor problem.
Not "having problems" is not always the right criteria. While Apple Maps have improved to the degree that makes them usable they are no match for Google Maps. The only reason people might prefer Apple Maps on Apple devices is the fact that Google Maps is a second class citizen in Apple ecosystem (intentionally so).
Exactly.
But do we know what exactly Apple keeps in their own datacenters? I'd be curious to know.
Apple is also spending $4 billion on three more datacenters in the US and Europe.
Any chance you've been selling it to the FBI? I know a judge who needs to know about it, before they conscript Apple to remove the security on a couple of hundred million iPhones around the planet.
To all those on here worried about Google having their data....
PLEASE stop with the hyperbole! And realise all Google is doing is supplying 'services' to Apple on the backbone, they will not do a THING with your data unless Apple agrees to it in the contract.
So stop worrying.
Just remember every free game you play will data mine you more than Google ever will, so do Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn.
PLEASE stop with the hyperbole! And realise all Google is doing is supplying 'services' to Apple on the backbone, they will not do a THING with your data unless Apple agrees to it in the contract.
So stop worrying.
Just remember every free game you play will data mine you more than Google ever will, so do Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn.
Actually iCloud data is encrypted. Apple has a key which allows them to decrypt it even without the user for recovery purposes. Obviously, I doubt Apple made the recovery keys available to Google...
Hmmm... that sort of data is probably kept close to home in Cupertino.
I find it hard to believe that they built the Marion, NC datacenter for payroll... plus the three additional datacenters coming soon.
Now that I think about it... didn't Steve Jobs announce that the Marion datacenter was for iCloud?
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So you must not using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat... These companies also scan every bit of you to make profit too. So you must elimated those services as well, right?
I just don't think Google will give crap about your information and I don't think Google cares about mine either. I am willing to take the risk of Google scan mine craps, becuase I just happened to like their services and I am enjoy every bit of Android.
I'd be surprised if Google could actually read any of the 3rd-party data that is hosted in their cloud.
I think we've determined that Apple will encrypt the iCloud data before it reaches Google anyway. I hope that's standard practice with ALL external cloud-hosting platforms. (Azure, AWS, etc)
Plus... Google is only interested in data that they can sell advertising against. Even if they could read my Notes backups in iCloud... I don't see how they could target ads to ME.
To be fair, it doesn't sound like they stopped doing it themselves, here, they just switched from Amazon to Google.
Criticism on why they would choose Google is completely valid, however.