On Tue, 2010-05-04 at 11:33 -0500, Scott Granneman wrote: > And my point when this is pointed out is that thanks to the PATRIOT > Act, it doesn't matter any longer WHERE your stuff is. If the feds > want it, they'll get it. End of story.
Well, end of story regarding the Feds ... but not the governments of the rest of the world. Let's go out on a hypothetical limb here ... suppose you've got a bunch of your data stored in the cloud, and one of the things you've got saved is a risque` cartoon involving the Simpsons kids and a certain level of, shall we say, Biblical knowledge. If that data cloud hovers over Australia, then you could very well be convicted of possessing child pornography ... as this poor guy was, for having those Simpsons cartoon sex images on his computer: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/08/simpsons_supreme_court/ > And I won't call it hypocrisy, but you're telling me NOTHING of yours > is stored on the Net? Nowhere? I don't believe it. When I was responsible for an IT department, we chose to host all our data on our own servers, which were physically stored at a CoLo in Central London. If I understand the Cloud, you don't actually know at any point in time just quite *where* your data might be stored. In my situation, it made sense for a UK company to have its data stored in the UK. Regarding my own personal data, I have nothing on the Net that I would feel uncomfortable with being published on a post card and mailed anonymously to anyone anywhere in the world. The invasion of my privacy would annoy me. Likewise my email. I assume that any email I send or receive is as private as a conversation in the middle of a crowded street. My point is that cloud computing is going to cause even more legal murkiness, and will make data inherently less secure. I don't see anything hypocritical about that. Theresa > Scott > -- > R. Scott Granneman > [email protected] ~ www.granneman.com ~ granneman.tel > Full list of publications @ http://www.granneman.com/publications > My new book: Google Apps Deciphered @ http://www.granneman.com/books > > "When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a > woman in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of > the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't > believe?'" > ---Quentin Crisp > > On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 8:07 AM, Theresa Kehoe <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Wed, 2010-04-21 at 10:14 -0500, Scott Granneman wrote: > > > > Quote from Scott Granneman: "Toldja the cloud was the future." > > > > If you love "the cloud", and it's the future, then maybe you should read > > this article on "The cloud and the future of the Fourth Amendment"[1]. > > > > I was taught, long ago, that if someone could gain physical access to > > one of my servers, it should be considered "hacked". > > > > So if you have no idea where your data is, or even which country (ies) > > it's being stored in, then how can you begin to consider it's secure? > > > > Oh, just encrypt it, I hear ... but then I read about the UK and its > > RIPA [2], whereby the law now REQUIRES someone to turn over all their > > encryption/decryption keys when requested to do so. Forgot your > > passkey? Well, maybe five years in prison might refresh your memory. > > And yes, people have already been convicted for refusing to decrypt > > their data files. > > > > Maybe the future is so bright I gotta wear shades ... or maybe those are > > just blinders? > > > > Theresa > > > > > > [1] > > http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/the-cloud-and-the-future-of-the-fourth-amendment.ars > > > > > > [2] http://www.out-law.com/page-8515 > > > > > > > > -- > > Central West End Linux Users Group (via Google Groups) > > Main page: http://www.cwelug.org > > To post: [email protected] > > To subscribe: [email protected] > > To unsubscribe: [email protected] > > More options: http://groups.google.com/group/cwelug > > > -- Central West End Linux Users Group (via Google Groups) Main page: http://www.cwelug.org To post: [email protected] To subscribe: [email protected] To unsubscribe: [email protected] More options: http://groups.google.com/group/cwelug
