Comment by alan_cx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by alan_cx | Hacker News Reader

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Again, again, again......

When are people going to realise clouds are dangerous? You lose control of your data regardless of smart programmers or civil rights. You can never ever be sure it wont be taken, spied on or just lose it.

Yes, there is a huge convenience to clouds, no doubt what so ever, but I will never ever trust them.

Use? Yes.

Rely on? Assume to be secure? Assume to be private? Assume to be always available? No, never, ever.

Trust in a US justice system where my data might be? Well, we've seen that plays out. The US justice system scares the hell out of me. So much so that I personally avoid everything I can that might bring me with in the orbit of the US justice system.

And I really don't like the way our data is being herded in to one place, or several holding camps. It really feels like the data equivalent of an internment camp. Put it all in one place so the authorities can control it and us, or just open fire.

You know, if government interference was really just for stuff like anti-terror, then I could accept all this. But its not. They seem more concerned with the profits of media companies and copyright than anything that really effects us plebs.

Oh, got to go, I think I just saw a black helicopter... I'll have rant at that.

Well, with the way it's been going, you'll soon have no choice but to rely on cloud services.

Everything is a goddamn service now - even my fingerprint reader wants an Internet connection - yeah, screw you Authentec!

Even managing multiple WP sites now has to be done via a third party service: https://managewp.com/ (I've got nothing against them, they're very good - in fact, there is no better local alternative, which is what makes me sad/angry).

> even my fingerprint reader wants an Internet connection

That is worrisome on many levels at once.

And I only found out after starting to manually block connections with a firewall... Authentec's TrueSuite became a must-install for some reason if you want to use their drivers and device on Windows.

One connection is for the software updates, and there are 2 other that I have no idea what they're used for. The TrueSuite app has an app store link and the features to export and import the fingerprint scans... So much for security...

Let's hope it is at least their software that they wrote that tries to make the connection and not something riding piggy back.

Fingerprint readers would make for a pretty good tool if you want to apprehend people on the lam, especially since you can lift their fingerprint, their location and a date/timestamp all at once. And they're self selecting in that the kind of people more likely to be doing naughty stuff would also be more likely to invest in such things as fingerprint readers.

There is an alternative to managewp.com: https://wpremote.com/ (not affiliated, etc.)

It's free, and UK-based - so benefits from EU data protection. By @humanmadeltd.

EDIT: Running on EC2 AFAIK, so subject to Safe Harbor, FWIW.

And again, out of the user's real control... Sure, the security seems sound, but you still put all your eggs in someone else's basket, so to say, with any such cloud service.

I've just moved to OwnCloud, so I'm running my own Dropbox-esque service, by myself, for myself.

What about EU companies? Is the cloud just a US thing?

Related: http://www.katescomment.com/is-cloud-safe/

There are specifically EU based companies offering cloud services only at EU based server parks. These companies make sure the US cannot have access to their data because a) the company isn't a US one b) the company does not have a part of its business located on US grounds and c) all servers are located in data centres on EU grounds.

Such services are offered with explicit notion of data protection against US laws, giving "us" EU people a safe harbour of data protection where we are (at this moment) sure "our" laws applies to "our" data.

Can you provide examples or links?

Gandi and OVH both provide VPS instances with an european-based cloud.

>Trust in a US justice system where my data might be? Well, we've seen that plays out. The US justice system scares the hell out of me. So much so that I personally avoid everything I can that might bring me with in the orbit of the US justice system.

And you think this kind of polical anti-US-justice-system rants help you in this? You are already on the top list of potential targets, if not for anything else, just for the above comment.

Kidding aside, it's not about the cloud. The cloud is a detail in this discourse. If you cannot trust the justice system or the government you fight, vote, motivate people, organize etc to change them and how they work.

Just avoiding this or that (in this case, the cloud) means nothing in the grand scheme of things. They'll get you in another way.

>If you cannot trust the justice system or the government you fight, vote, motivate people, organize etc to change them and how they work.

Yes, but what if you don't live in the same country as the government you don't trust? Should I try get the people and politicians in the EU to back a war against the US?

No, but you might try to influence people not to use US data companies.

The best thing that could happen to the US (citizen here) is for the rest of the world to shun our data infrastructure and services. We would then have a chance to see the error of our ways.

> And you think this kind of polical anti-US-justice-system rants help you in this? You are already on the top list of potential targets, if not for anything else, just for the above comment.

You're arguing that to stay safe from the U.S. Government, one ought to abstain from criticizing the U.S. Government?

You're right in practical terms, I guess. But this sort of attitude is toxic to democracy.

You probably missed the "kidding aside" part, where I write in the middle of my comment "KIDDING ASIDE".

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