After the Sidekick fiasco, should we be afraid to store data in the cloud?

I do not do it.

I am not so much afraid about data loss, but about the privacy of my data. It does not matter how nice or unevil a company is. There are several cases of companies being forced to spy on their users. I try to minimise the exposure of data, that I consider to be sensitive, to outside sources as much as possible.

Looking at successful online mail or calendar applications, I have to admit that I never ever thought that so many people will hand their information over.

I still do hope that we will get a bigger awareness about privacy by the general population. Like environmental activists and parties changed the mind of the general population during the last...hmm..lets say 30 years. Somehow those parties had a big effect. No party could talk nowadays about industry projects without talking about dangers to the environment. (At least they pretend to talk about those issues..) I would like to see privacy concerns on topic more often. Once data is 'free'... there is no way back. (umm.. yes, I do know that the Sidekick fiasco was not about privacy.. :)

No