Reading Response 13:
Captives of the Cloud
Question 1
If private companies/corporations such as Google, Yahoo!, ebay, and Amazon have access to the cloud, but the people (users) who add to the data and architecture of the cloud do not, how much privacy do we actually have in today's soceity? Is there any to limit the amount of data corporations receive on an individual user other than completely omitting from using such sites?
Question 2
The author states: "As with most technology, there is a sense of abstraction from prior experiences; in the cloud the user no longer needs to understand how a software program works or where his or her data really is,". Awareness and access to information lets individuals within our soceity make informed choices, but the cloud seems to disconnect itself from the masses in an effort to aid the capitalist pursuits of corporations. How can we design a system that gives users more authority over their data?