Online storage and backup are quickly becoming necessary as people move from desktops to laptops to tablets and smart phones.
A lot of people have been talking about the new Google Drive which for most of us is still not available. Like normal Google is releasing their product to select persons and migrating accounts to provide permission for the Drive storage as they see fit.
This is somewhat understandable to not flood their data centers with lots of traffic but eventually everyone with a Google account should get access to both a free and paid service.
The idea behind this new drive type storage is being lead by the move to hardware with lesser capabilities. Eventually Microsoft, Google and Apple want to have control over your data. They want to store it and they also want to access it.
And just like people can’t control their kids from buying too many apps or sending too many text messages on their phones .. people will begin to upload data that includes extremely personal information and they will find out that their account has been hacked… or that someone was given access to it.
One thing that cautions me is that Google will definitely install some type of software that probes your files. It could look for music files as quickly as YouTube rejects any video you upload that contains copyrighted music.. or it could look for software that you store as a backup and think it is pirated.. or it could look for credit card numbers or social security numbers or other easy to sniff data that is extremely personal.
Do you think I am Paranoid? well think about this…
Just months ago the whole world was watching as publicly accessible data storage centers were being taken down by the federal government.
I don’t condone the mass distribution of pirated software or music or other products especially for a profit but it does happen… it is also the fact that individuals want to share things between friends and if you do that with music .. the federal government is not conclusive on if it is legal or not… some say it is but if an artist or label complains then you will get sued even if you were only sharing a personal clip or song with a friend.
So MegaUpload went down and so did a number of other services.
Then about a month later Microsoft introduces Skydrive… and now weeks later Google introduces Google Drive.
Google’s and Microsoft’s products are different then a file upload site that stores individual files but when you think about it who would have been in the best position to compete with Microsoft and Google…
Obviously these file storage sites would have been able to produce some type of product that would have gained popularity with the Open Source community who would have pushed it farther with software to enable connectivity and transparent uploads and downloads of files…
Well I am not saying it was done on behalf of or at the request of Apple, Microsoft or Google.. but they sure did benefit from MegaUpload and the half dozen other sites being taken down.
If you use any of these services I hope that you will encrypt your files at minimal with a 24 character or longer zip encryption.. it may not be uncrackable but it is better then simply storing data in its raw form.
