I wrote about cloud computing and reliability concerns recently.
Yesterday I read of a frightening situation that really hadn’t occurred to me in this much Technicolor until then. It seems a fellow took Google to heart and soul, and spent four months putting pretty much his whole life into Google properties. I’m not talking just photos and videos, but all of his banking, medical records, and other Things That Really Do Matter. Google has “perceived a violation” of its Terms of Service on this account, and revoked any access to it.
Gone.
As I type, Google has offered the man no support of any kind for its accusation. He was simply informed, in an automated message, that something seemed suspicious to Google, so…gone. He can’t get to any of it. Lost a web site out there, too. Will he ever be able to access it again? Google hasn’t said.
Folks, I don’t read software license agreements, site terms of service agreements, and so forth any more carefully than you do. If I’m trying out something that’s not particularly widely adopted, then I’ll give it a somewhat closer skim, and that’s about it. But see, the bottom line here is that I’m sure Google is consistent with its own agreement when it does this. We all need to think very, very carefully about what we surrender to this kind of control, because said control is essentially ultimate.
We can easily argue that this man was a fool, but isn’t he just availing himself of what Google offers?
My stands remain, and they are permanent. Absolutely nothing of mine goes exclusively in the cloud. Absolutely nothing important of mine goes in the cloud at all.
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