Coding and Beer

I know the ‘Cloud’ (or as I like to call it, the Internet) is all the rage these days.  Cloud services are a good idea, you don’t have to manage anything and you get to use some great services.  There is a cost though, even on those free accounts.  That cost is data ownership.

I read a post titled Hey Google, thanks for making my daughter cry  today.  I laugh at it because he should have been responsible and backed it up if he and his daughter ‘really’ cared about it.  Do you think these companies care about your data?  Not at all.  They only care about your data when it serves their interests.

I’m working on setting up my own cloud that I control.  Is it more work for me?  Yes, but I also gain the satisfaction of knowing that the companies won’t take my data away without any recourse.  Plus, if I manage my own data, they can’t sell it to advertisers and serve it up to governments without my knowledge.

Here is my public service announcement – If you don’t have possession of your data, you can’t have any expectations that it will be there tomorrow or that you have any privacy.

As a side note, I find it interesting that he posted that on Google +.  Do you think he would be mad if they lost all his posts?

I hope to add more posts in the future about my switch from corporation owned services over to self controlled services.