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The cloud is a current buzzword in technology, referring to remote storage space on the internet. The big challenge with using it, as a privacy advocate, is you don’t know what the people on the remote end are doing with it — are they reading or reviewing the files you put there? Are they selling them or providing the information about those files to third parties like advertisers? Is anyone legally responsible if it is hacked/compromised? If they’re offering it for “free”, you’re likely providing the product being sold.
The most controversial as of writing this is the newly announced Google Drive, whose Terms of Service currently suggest that while you own the copyright for files you put there, Google could use the content as well:
“When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.”
That being said, there are a lot of benefits to using the cloud, I just don’t recommend you do it for anything you’d not want public someday. If you want to store confidential files there, encrypt them with something like GNU Privacy Guard, that way only you can read them.
If I’ve not scared you off, here are a few different free solutions, you can use one or all of them for over 10G of free storage space!
If you know of any others, let me know and I’ll add it to the list!
If you’ve not heard of #SOPA yet, you likely will today. As of right now, it’s only something that techies and internet crusaders seem to be aware of. Like many of the scariest laws of the last decade, you should name your legislation something that sounds really good, but in the end does the exact opposite of what the name implies. The US PATRIOT ACT and the Canadian Safe Streets and Communities Act are perfect examples of this. Like the US Patriot Act, it’s easiest to pass draconian legislation through when citizens are distracted and afraid, using their fear against them. My speculation is today’s public outcry will have the bills tabled… until there’s some ‘emergency’ where they can be rammed through without proper public debate.
The latest attack is on the internet as we know it, and it’s entitled the Stop Online Piracy Act. While this sounds good simply by the name, if you read it, it’s scary. It allows American private sector organizations to effectively control the global internet. They could turn your organization’s website off, if they wanted to. There’s a lot more to it, which you should read about and understand for yourself. It’s so scary, that many of the internet’s most popular websites have declared today a “blackout day”, to give you an idea of what the internet can and will be like should this legislation pass. As of writing this, Wikipedia, Google, XKCD, boingboing, reddit, oatmeal, craigslist USA, the Whitehouse and dozens of others have at least taken an official anti SOPA stance, if their site isn’t blacked out altogether for Jan 18th, 2012.
The organizations that support SOPA are American, and rely on legacy and outdated policies and legislation around copyright and intellectual property. Instead of effectively working with technology and technologists, and their users, to make the world better, they insist on controlling it with SOPA, a virtual weapon. This is like trying to ban CDs if you’re a company that makes 8 tracks. This entire industry will be completely different in 10 years, and SOPA will be an embarrassment to all involved at that time, even more so than it is now.
As of writing this, I am one of over 180,000 Canadians that have signed the stop the meter campaign against usage based billing. There are several challenges with usage based billing, the main two to me being the immediate killing of all internet service provider (ISP) competition where very little exists already, as well as the stifling of innovation in the digital media space. Not to mention, internet fees will go up for all of us. You can read TekSavvy’s statement on the issue (this forces them to limit customers who were at 200GB/month limits to only 25GB/month limit!), or the open letter against UBB for more information. There’s also an info-graphic examining some of the costs.
A few minutes ago, Shaw posted their data usage webpage. What’s most worthy of note is there explanation at the bottom of why people often go over their limits:
- Peer-to-peer file sharing programs, including music and movie downloads
There are also legal reasons for using peer-to-peer, for example, if you’ve ever downloaded Ubuntu GNU/Linux you’ve likely used torrents. Many music and movie sites legally encourage you to use torrents as well. Not to mention the grey market downloads…
- Viruses
Do you want to be financially punished if you get a virus?
- Emailing large files
Do you want to have to pay attention to every email you send, or receive, to make sure there are no large attachments?
- Streaming video websites, social networking media/websites
Isn’t this where the internet is headed, and one of the current benefits of the internet?
- Multiple users on the same network
I guess Shaw wants us to start having smaller families.
- Computer hackers
- Compromised wireless network — is someone else using your Wi-Fi network?
Again, do you want to financially punished if either of these things happen to you?
What can you do?
- Sign the petition
- Join the Facebook group
- Join Reddit in writing letters to newspaper editors
- Meet with your MP
This is a technology hint for those wanting to know if they’re getting a good deal. You can use this hint no matter what you’re buying. You could be looking at a product in a store, from a friend, or on craigslist.ca, it doesn’t matter. Before you make your next purchase of any product, try this hint. In order to use this hint, you will need an account on ebay.
Once logged into ebay, go to the advanced search option right after the search button:
and once there look for the Completed listings check box. When entering your item to search, make sure the Completed listings box has been checked along with your detailed search.
Any results in green are what that item has sold for on ebay. This gives you an idea of what you’re looking to buy is a reasonable deal or not. Because of the quantity of items sold on ebay, it should give you a good general idea. Don’t forget to include the price on shipping and handling, as well as shipping insurance, if applicable.
Traditional cellular phones are now known as feature phones, deprecated by the advanced “smart phone”, which allows one to install feature rich, operating system applications. With the advanced computer opportunities, comes great security risks, your cell phone can now be cracked just as a personal computer can, as a result. That being said, most people seem to upgrade to a smart phone once given the opportunity.
You’ll notice many techies care more for technical specs than for marketing. As a result, you will often get a significantly superior product. While we were using the E71 for months while other friends awaited the iphone, we were using some of these stock features that come with the SymbianOS based E71:
* Can send Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
* Customize ringtones with your mp3s
* Removable storage device
* Replaceable battery that typically lasts a week between charges
* Removable SIM card
* 3.2M digital camera with flash that can record video
* Small video camera on the front for video conferencing
* Voice dialling
* Voice recording
* Bevelled Qwerty keyboard (touchscreen keyboards = ugh)
* Opensource operating system
* Instant messaging (Facebook, Twitter, MSN, Yahoo!, Skype etc)
* VPN
* Encryption (internal flash disk and/or memory card)
* QuickOffice
* Can copy and paste
* Podcasting
* Built in SIP (VoIP) client!
While we’ve not been compensated to recommend this cell phone, we’ve used it and enjoy it compared to the others we’ve tried. If you have one that you feel is superior to this, don’t hesitate to contact us with the technical reasons why!
The biggest issues we have with the E71:
* Calendaring requires Microsoft Outlook (why not an open standard like iCalendar (.ics)?)
* While the removable storage device shows up on Linux, there is no PC Suite like client for open source operating systems and the format used is proprietary.
Full E71 Specifications on Nokia.com
Disclosure of material connection: CMP.ly/0
On our contact us page we mention OpenPGP standard encryption (RFC 4880). What is this? Most people think email only goes to the intended recipient, but instead it travels across the internet like a postcard. Even if you’re emailing your neighbour, that email postcard will often cross international boundaries. Once that postcard goes out, you have no control of where it goes, or how long it stays out there.
For those that prefer to send their mail in an envelope, email encryption offers this. There are several solutions available you can use to communicate with us, your business partners, friends and family.
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