Episode #19 - Privacy: Do We Still Have Any?

Hey Jay,

By far, the most common question I’m asked when I give presentations on cloud-based living is a variant of “How do you feel about posting SO much of your data onto machines owned by another computer?”. While you touched on this, I thought it would only make sense to answer here, too.

1. For me, the access to my data far out-weighs the potential privacy issues. By placing my email, documents, calendar, contacts, photos and so on online - I’m able to access them from almost any computer with an internet connection. Also, as devices like the iPod Touch and iPhone and their competitors grow in adoption, that data will be reachable to me from a larger area.

2. The first three rules of computing STILL apply online: Backup, backup, backup. Flickr, for example, is the LAST place to see my photos. And while I do use gmail as my front-and-center place to see and deal with email - there IS a non-monitored, non-filtered backup of it. All of it. Spam included. Every piece of media I make that can be RSS’d (like my delicious and my twitter) all hits that inbox too. If the online universe did collapse, I’d be able to rebuild - it’d be ugly and time consuming - but possible.

3. My solution of living life 90-ish percent online is NOT for everyone - nor would I EVER pretend it was. A good number of people have privacy concerns (which are quite valid given some laws) and a whole bunch of other people wouldn’t even know where to start. For me, being able to be at PAB with just my iPod Touch, and still accomplish anything I needed to was TOTALLY worth it.

4. One thing to keep in mind with my cloud-based living strategy is that while I put my data online, it’s MY data - and not yours. I do make EXTENSIVE use of the “privacy” features on sites like flickr and delicious to upload data for my own consumption. My own baby photos, and my wife’s are all on flickr, for example - they’re just tagged for my viewing only. I use the quotes on the word ‘privacy’ because while I generally trust that a site will do everything it can to block a non-authorized user (Say, you) from viewing things, the data IS still there, and likely hackable - or at least open to their own admins.

5. This probably really should have been a post on my own site.

Thanks for making me thing on a Wednesday.