Ever since the creation of the Cloud about a year or so ago, I’ve been very weary and skeptical of the thought of switching over to it.  The thought of all software, files, data, etc. being located in a nebulous form of online space was an immediate turn off.  Even when I heard about it for the first time, from a friend who described it pretty vaguely (and expressed the same concerns I have now), I didn’t feel too comfortable with the idea.  Pretty much eliminating the need for a hard drive, the Cloud works by storing all your images, music, games, documents, and anything else that takes up memory on a remote server that’s connected to your computer.  An interesting thing about the Cloud is that you can have multiple links to the same server, meaning your phone, tablet, MP3 player, desktop, and laptop could all share the memory that’s on the Cloud.  Apple capitalized on this and made the iCloud, which allows sharing between every product they make.

Even on paper, the Cloud sounds like a fishy idea; all your information and personal digital data stored on a huge server that you must remotely access to allow sharing between a number of your devices?  Just thinking about it makes me scared for the protection of my documents.  Not to mention the problems with hacking.  As Mat Honan experienced first-hand, the Cloud makes it all too easy for someone to go from your iPhone to your Macbook, or vice-versa.  Also, simply hacking into the Cloud is an option, granting access to thousands of people’s information while only doing the work of one hack.  The existence of the Cloud makes your likelihood of being hacked increase exponentially; instead of having to pinpoint your computer or device out of the millions of computers out there, one can just hack a Cloud server, and yours and everyone else’s data that’s stored there is unprotected and ready for the taking.  It also doesn’t help that as Honan describes, it’s apparently extremely easy to fake Apple’s iCloud management and gain access to people’s data without having to even breach security.  Concerns have also been raised about how the server hosts (such as Apple) having access to all your information too.  With them controlling the data storage, they could be going through anyone’s information, legally or illegally.  They could delete data with on intent or by accident, and you’ll have no way of getting it back.  There’s thousands of possible outcomes and situation that may arise, and most of them are bad for your security and privacy.  Here’s a great article on how to be security-concious when dealing with the Cloud, and highlights that privacy laws are still in the works, which again makes me hesitant on switching over anytime soon.

While intuitive in it’s design, the Cloud is something I can see only causing problems in the future digital age.  I’ve already seen the dangers of it through Mat Honan, which only confirmed my beliefs on how risky switching to Cloud computing is.  In an age where all our information is online (or at least most of it), sending all of it to a web version of a public storage, minus the security is probably one of the worst things you could do compared to keeping your information on your hard drive.  I myself have not used any Cloud-esque storing or sharing, and I don’t plan to.  Honan comments that many computer companies (most notably Apple) are pushing for universal Cloud use of it’s users.  I for one will be the last person to switch over to Cloud computing if that’s the case, and I offer everyone do the same if they value their privacy and online safety.