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Place Not Your Trust in Big Data

Gord_in_Toronto

Penultimate Amazing
Gord_in_Toronto
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
26,457
I've always been suspiciously wary of dedicating my computing and data to the ubiquitous cloud. I want real programs running on my computer and my data in a box within my sight. I often get laughed at as some sort of dinosaur; yearning for the days of command lines and removable disks. And yet. And yet, there is this:
  • Entrusting your data to big tech platforms can be highly risky.
  • Users who have been banned by Google for supposedly violating its terms of service have been left without access to key parts of their lives.
  • Many have appealed the suspensions but have received automated responses.
  • They don't know why they've been banned. "This is just how life is when you're dealing with trillion-dollar faceless corporations," said Aral Balkan.
Click to expand...

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-users-locked-out-after-years-2020-10

:(
 
If you are a dinosaur, you are not alone

I have exactly ZERO data stored online with any tech company that I do not have stored locally on my own duplicate portable SSDs.

I never, ever operate my Gmail account online, it is always via an email client program (in my case Thunderbird), which downloads my emails and deletes them from the Gmail server.
 
Have your data backed up in at least three different places.
1. The cloud
2. Another remote site
3. Local site.

Then if something happens to your computer + a backup all is not lost.
 
The English word "cloud" is pronounced exactly like the German word "klaut", which means "someone steals something". End of debate. My data is physically at home.
 
I detest cloud data storage for anything more complex than sharing photos (which are properly backed up elsewhere). I also still do business with a small, locally based ISP, which is Linux-friendly and actually has shell access (info available on request, they also have remote-access shell) and most of my email goes through them to be downloaded. Gmail is for newsletters and other promotional stuff, and emergency backup. If that makes me a Luddite, fine.
 
deadrose said:
I detest cloud data storage for anything more complex than sharing photos (which are properly backed up elsewhere).
Click to expand...

Whereas I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. Providing infrastructure and services for a large software development organization in several regions around the world, cloud-based storage (cloud-based everything, really) is the optimal solution, with huge advantages over on-premise alternatives.

Of course, we're paying for support and guarantees, and for the privilege of having multiple copies of our data and services in multiple regions to ensure availability.
 
deadrose said:
A lot of languages use a softer T, not as plosive as English.
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Spoken American English typically "swallows" the final consonant. So you're saying something more like "clou-" and "klau-" (assuming you're an American trying to pronounce a German word as if it were English).

And also the 'au' of "cloud" is slightly more drawn out than the 'au' of "klaut". Not sure how to describe it, but that's how it sounds and speaks when I try it. Not a big deal; I just don't hear them being pronounced the exactly the same at all.
 
Gord_in_Toronto said:
I've always been suspiciously wary of dedicating my computing and data to the ubiquitous cloud. I want real programs running on my computer and my data in a box within my sight. I often get laughed at as some sort of dinosaur; yearning for the days of command lines and removable disks. And yet. And yet, there is this:


https://www.businessinsider.com/google-users-locked-out-after-years-2020-10

:(
Click to expand...

As far as I'm concerned, "the cloud" is a very clever marketing term for "somebody else's computer". I use "the cloud" a bit, for stuff I want to share, or stuff I want to be able to access from both phone and computer, but for really important stuff, I want it on hardware that I control.
 
CORed said:
As far as I'm concerned, "the cloud" is a very clever marketing term for "somebody else's computer". I use "the cloud" a bit, for stuff I want to share, or stuff I want to be able to access from both phone and computer, but for really important stuff, I want it on hardware that I control.
Click to expand...


I haven't got all that much really important stuff. Much of what I do have (banking, ins., etc.) is already on "somebody else's computer" anyhow. I keep copies on my own machines as well.

Like you, I use sundry cloud storage accounts for sharing and access, and Google Photos for keeping copies of photos. All of which is free, since I do very little of any of that.

If I manage to get Google that pissed off at me, and manage to screw up my home machines, and something screws up the cloud accounts I do use, all at the same time, then I've probably got bigger problems anyway.
 
Childlike Empress said:
The English word "cloud" is pronounced exactly like the German word "klaut", which means "someone steals something". End of debate.
Click to expand...
Good point! That's why I don't use the cloud. Because German words.

And lol @ anyone who trusts Google as far as they can throw a server.
 
bigred said:
Good point! That's why I don't use the cloud. Because German words.

And lol @ anyone who trusts Google as far as they can throw a server.
Click to expand...

I have no doubt that Google knows way more about me than I really like. OTOH, since I lead a rather boring and vanilla life, there's not much harm they could do to me with that information. They certainly use it to target ads, which means that I see ads for something that I actually want slightly more often than I would if they were completely random. Far more often, I see ads for something I searched for last week and already bougth, and probably won't buy again for 5 to ten years. What gets really spooky though, is when I type two letters in the search bar, and the first suggestion that pops up is exactly what I intended to type. Stop reading my mind, damned Google.
 
What is this “trust” people speak of? Does any one trust any company? I certainly don’t.

In regards to cloud services, I’m happy that the ones I use are providing the services I’m paying for. I can certainly access my files whenever I have tried to, and from a wide variety of devices, and the many automated back-up and restore systems I use have always worked whenever I’ve checked them. The only thing that doesn’t work well is that I’ll delete something when I’m working on one particular device, and find sometime later it has “reappeared” - that’s because it was restored by a different cloud system to the one I deleted it from or was originally stored on a different device. That can be annoying but rather have the issue that it is harder to delete something than it is harder to restore something.

ETA: After posting I wondered what it would take to make my cloud files unavailable and it would require Apple, Amazon, DropBox, Google and Microsoft all to stop their services all at the same time. Now of course that could happen but if it did happen I suspect there would be much more for me to worry about than not having access to some emails or photos from 2001!
 
Last edited:
Once upon a time, there was a database technology based on algebraic and logical concepts.

Then came myriads of text files, stored hither and yon. And that's when the term data scientist was born?!
 
CORed said:
I have no doubt that Google knows way more about me than I really like. OTOH, since I lead a rather boring and vanilla life, there's not much harm they could do to me with that information. They certainly use it to target ads, which means that I see ads for something that I actually want slightly more often than I would if they were completely random. Far more often, I see ads for something I searched for last week and already bougth, and probably won't buy again for 5 to ten years.
Click to expand...


Yeah. Pretty much this.

What gets really spooky though, is when I type two letters in the search bar, and the first suggestion that pops up is exactly what I intended to type. Stop reading my mind, damned Google.
Click to expand...


One possibility; Lots of other people have been asking the same or a similar question. That's not so bad, or to be unexpected.

Another possibility; Lots of other people are reading your mind. That could be more problematic.
 
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