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How can we avoid the cloud?
- Thread starter hairypoo
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First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
Senate committee OKs bill requiring warrant for email, cloud search(Nov 2012)
Haven't heard that this passed the senate this year, much less made it through the tea party gauntlet in the house.
Two interesting articles about the guys who "are here to help"...
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/10/lavabit_unsealed/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ing-is-essential-but-oversight-of-nsa-is-not/
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/10/lavabit_unsealed/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ing-is-essential-but-oversight-of-nsa-is-not/
Interesting discussion here. Let me add some more thought-material on privacy.
I would recommend everyone reading the following paper from Daniel J. Solove:
And be careful when you exercise your freedom of speech:
And oming back to cloud services... can you really avoid that your data goes 'out there'?
If I give my telephone number to a friend and he stores it with my full name and address and syncs it to the cloud? What happens if a friend snaps a photo of me and then uploads it to a social media site and tags me? Or all the emails I exchange with someone who uses a free email service provider?
I would recommend everyone reading the following paper from Daniel J. Solove:
And be careful when you exercise your freedom of speech:
And oming back to cloud services... can you really avoid that your data goes 'out there'?
If I give my telephone number to a friend and he stores it with my full name and address and syncs it to the cloud? What happens if a friend snaps a photo of me and then uploads it to a social media site and tags me? Or all the emails I exchange with someone who uses a free email service provider?
I'd also like to regain the ability to sync my bookmarks, calendar, address book, etc through iTunes instead of the cloud. Yes, big brother can read through my emails and who I am emailing. But I have plenty of contacts who I never email or even call. I think my bookmarks are for me and for me alone. So is my calendar.
Anybody who thinks I'm paranoid can go ahead and think so. But I'm also a business owner. Those data are not only private, but some are also classified info for my company.
It's funny how short sighted some people can be. They think the government spying of emails and cloud services is okay. Tell that to the foreign companies who were thinking about hosting their data here with US companies. Say goodbye to that $$$.
So, back to the OP's question: how can you avoid the cloud? I'm sure it's a given that he's accepting that emails are insecure. But how about Contacts, Bookmarks, Calendar?
Here are a few I've thought of so far:
1) Revert to Mountain Lion - going to be painful work. But I'd like this to be the last resort.
2) Set up an OS X server - this would take care of the Calendar and Contacts. But does this sync bookmarks?
Anybody else have solutions? 3rd party applications?
Thank you,
Ty
Anybody who thinks I'm paranoid can go ahead and think so. But I'm also a business owner. Those data are not only private, but some are also classified info for my company.
It's funny how short sighted some people can be. They think the government spying of emails and cloud services is okay. Tell that to the foreign companies who were thinking about hosting their data here with US companies. Say goodbye to that $$$.
So, back to the OP's question: how can you avoid the cloud? I'm sure it's a given that he's accepting that emails are insecure. But how about Contacts, Bookmarks, Calendar?
Here are a few I've thought of so far:
1) Revert to Mountain Lion - going to be painful work. But I'd like this to be the last resort.
2) Set up an OS X server - this would take care of the Calendar and Contacts. But does this sync bookmarks?
Anybody else have solutions? 3rd party applications?
Thank you,
Ty
If you're going to do paranoid, do it properly...
Each time your computer looks up the IP address of a website (e.g. when you type an address in a browser) an indexed block of data from your hard drive gets sent along with the request, mandated by the NSA's interception program. Your entire hard disk is being hoovered and mirrored in a vast data array buried under some hill in Virginia.
Of course, I'm joking.
Or am I?
Because the cloud isn't all that reliable. The only things I have in the cloud are my calendar and contacts, and I put them there sometime this last year.
To date, the Cloud has lost four of my important contact files, and also for some reason some of my contacts are duplicated, even triplicated. And this is only the stuff I've looked for at the moment of needing it. Who knows how much else is messed up or completely gone. This certainly shakes my faith in the quality of the cloud.
I've spent about four hours total time on the phone with Apple Care and each time they say they definitely have it fixed.
Well, it's not. It's very unnerving to look up an address in my iPhone only to discover it's not even there anymore. This tends to make me grumpy.
That's how it is. But most of you are US-located I guess and your secret services do have a little bit of control by law and congress etc. What about
Europeans or Asians? Criminal US-secret services scoop up all their data and phone calls, etc. without warrant. Perhaps it's paranoic to hate this criminal (by European standards) activity, so be it.
A comment from the developer of SyncMate Expert:
Sync Service that SyncMate used for information exchange got disabled in 10.9. Our developers are designing proprietary sync technology. It's not a regular bug fix, but the whole new module. We are working on the solution since first betas [of Mavericks], and we apologize that it takes a lot of time.
(MacUpdate, 29 Oct 2013)
TWICE this has happened to me. Why would I expect Apple to have fixed this when there is no option to allow or not allow a sync from the cloud? Give me that option and I may reconsider.
Make that two of us.
That's why you should go for a hybrid solution. The cloud to help augment your local solution, to help you as a backup. And choose bigger companies, ones that aren't likely to just shut down. iCloud, or Dropbox, or SkyDrive, or Google Drive. Sugarsync is also good.
[[ It is not that my laptop and desktop are necessarily safer than the cloud. But NSA for one collects the data from the various clouds (google, apple, amazon, dropbox, yahoo, etc) indiscriminately and bulk. If they get interested in my information that resides on my macs, then they need to specifically target my macs and won't have a copy on their HDDs automatically. ]]
Within 5 years they'll probably have the capability to access your computer directly, no cloud necessary. They'll be able to "work around" firewalls, NAT, etc.
Others will reply "impossible!". Yet if only five years ago someone said to you that they'd have the capability to monitor and record every phone call and every email (along with every electronic financial transaction), what would your reply have been?
Having said that, I prefer not to use "the cloud" either -- whether it be Apple's cloud or anybody else's cloud. I don't even have a working iTunes or Apple Store account. Just my personal preference.
Within 5 years they'll probably have the capability to access your computer directly, no cloud necessary. They'll be able to "work around" firewalls, NAT, etc.
Others will reply "impossible!". Yet if only five years ago someone said to you that they'd have the capability to monitor and record every phone call and every email (along with every electronic financial transaction), what would your reply have been?
Having said that, I prefer not to use "the cloud" either -- whether it be Apple's cloud or anybody else's cloud. I don't even have a working iTunes or Apple Store account. Just my personal preference.
Better say 15 years ago. These capabilities arose in the late 90's , early aughts, and got moved onto the front burner with 9/11. A lot of people knew these sorts of programs existed by 2005.
You are welcome. So long as even one person rids themselves of the ridiculous notion that the cloud is of itself any more dangerous than any other aspect of connected computing, my job will have been done.
What are you talking about? You need to be connected to get to any sort of cloud.
Attempting to add to people's confusion is no way to help anyone.
if you browse the web which you obviously do to get here - you are storing data somewhere on the network.
Not says OP but I love people who complain about stuff like this but use Google or Facebook who collect more data about you with no motive but profit at best.
Why would you use products like an iPhone if don't want to use their services.
You could always back up by printing off or writing down contacts and if you phone breaks you could re-enter the stuff by hand.
Not says OP but I love people who complain about stuff like this but use Google or Facebook who collect more data about you with no motive but profit at best.
Why would you use products like an iPhone if don't want to use their services.
You could always back up by printing off or writing down contacts and if you phone breaks you could re-enter the stuff by hand.
I've used every iPhone since the original and never used any cloud service. I use the iPhone because I like it's UI, it's form, it's simplicity, it's effectiveness at doing what I need it to do.
Also, I turn off location services and use a VPN.
I too use all the services of the iPhone but I host and manage all my email, contacts, and calendars on my own server and don't use any cloud either. Just because I have no need for the cloud and don't want to use it doesn't mean that I don't have need for the services and need to seek out another device. I too use a VPN when I see the need. Some of us need the connection and connectivity just don't need the cloud.
I am not a total paranoid user but I don't like having all of my info out there floating around uncontrolled either. I like some control over it. Yes I do use Google but have none of my personal information on it and don't sync any of my contacts or calendars to it. As far as they are concerned, I am just another anonymous user as they have no personal information of mine and that includes my name or phone number. This was my one gripe with android, in the beginning you needed a google account to even set up a device (may have since changed as I only had one for a few weeks in the dry early stages), so they are no better as an alternative device either.
I am not a total paranoid user but I don't like having all of my info out there floating around uncontrolled either. I like some control over it. Yes I do use Google but have none of my personal information on it and don't sync any of my contacts or calendars to it. As far as they are concerned, I am just another anonymous user as they have no personal information of mine and that includes my name or phone number. This was my one gripe with android, in the beginning you needed a google account to even set up a device (may have since changed as I only had one for a few weeks in the dry early stages), so they are no better as an alternative device either.
I just love how a few people here became the OP and decided to answer a question that wasn't asked of them.
To the REAL OP, you need to understand that by just you connecting to the internet you've already given up your rights to privacy. You have absolutely no idea if the camera on your Mac (unless you've put tape on it) is spying on you. Just because the camera light doesn't turn on doesn't mean it isn't spying when you connect to the web. Every place you surface knows you're there, your IP and many other things about your computer. If you want privacy, don't connect to the web period because the cloud alone isn't your enemy.
Thanks, Michael. I already have Dropbox and use it for Notation and 1Password. I didn't know I could put Calendar and Contacts in there! Sorry, my knowledge is limited but I'm trying to learn.
I've not yet upgraded to Mavericks, partly because of the Contacts issue as I previously had related.
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