The internet as your hard drive
A few months ago, one of my Ma.gnolia contacts bookmarked the article No More Hard Drive! 100 Free Software Apps to Go Online-Only. At first, I was excited by the concept of being able to use any computer to not only access but to actually work with my data. But then I wondered: is that really a good thing?
The most obvious concerns are of privacy, security and reliability.
Currently, I keep everything on my computer and create backups religiously (after one expensive and ill-timed experience with data loss). With this I may be susceptible to loosing everything if anyone steals my computer, but I’m also empowered to employ any degree of paranoid precaution to safeguard my data. My sensitive files (including the information of my patrons) are encrypted, and the computer is under physical lock & key.
By using these services, I would be at their mercy. Do I trust them to hold all of my information? The services all have privacy policies, but it’s not uncommon for companies to have difficulty enforcing their privacy policy. Companies are just as susceptible to computer theft as individuals, and are probably a bigger target because they hold the information of so many people (too many examples to link!).
I wonder, too, whether using the internet as a computer is all its cracked up to be. Sure, there are many instances where I would want to access and manipulate my files without having to take my computer with me everywhere…but for each of those circumstances, there’s a counterbalancing circumstance where I wouldn’t have access to a computer other than mine, or even to an internet connection. These infrastructural issues will probably be overcome in the future, but how long will that take? Nearly 8 years lapsed between the time I wanted a laptop and the time an affordable, reliable and truly portable laptop was a reality for me. Will it be another 8 before I can use the internet to replace my hard drive? Will I even want that option when it’s finally available?
Tags: computers, internet, portability, web 2.0
Hi, Julianna
British Telecommunications, one of our biggest ISPs, is currently showing a TV commercial that advertises its backup service: all your files backed up for 3 months on BP’s webspace. Sounds great, but as you point out, there are all sorts of issues, including privacy. There are bits of me all over the Internet: Blogger, Google, Yahoo, Yahoo Groups and a host of others. I wouldn’t like to have them all in one place, apart from my PC hard drive and some floppy disks. Spreading bits around makes them recoverable.
Can you make the text on your blog any bigger? I’m currently using a 14″ monitor, and your text is too small for me. I tried enlarging it, but WordPress doesn’t seem to allow it. One of things I like about Blogger is that it allows a visitor to enlarge or reduce text size.
Hi, Ian.
Thanks for stopping by. I’ve added a plugin to allow for the font size to be adjusted.
So ISPs are getting into data storage now? With all the demands on Canadian ISPs to hand over subscriber information due to suspected piracy, I’d be interested to see what happens if people start to keep their files on BP’s webspace!
really good post here. i have the same concerns over privacy and security as you do for online computing. i really don’t care what anyone tells me about security and so forth. i have seen way too much compromised data this past year to be confident of that assertion. i think you may be waiting as long for this one as your laptop. i don’t know if you have heard of internet2, but it’s coming. they have put down most of the backbone for this newer version of the internet. the speeds on this thing are amazing. that would make this type of data exchange easier. also, i’ve heard ip version 6 has much better built in security that ip version 4. good to hear you religiously backup your data now – warms my heart!
Paul, I recently realized that online computing has a bigger obstacle than security: accessibility. It’s amazing how unreliable internet access is, even in cities like Toronto, Ottawa and Waterloo. For example, when I was blogging about the Visual Arts Summit, it sometimes took over an hour for me to find an open wireless connection which was strong enough. The hotel offered internet access, but at rates which equalled a month’s service with an ISP over the three days I was there. If I did all of my work online, I would have been screwed!