Cloud services ask us to trust them with plenty of personal information, but they often fail to respect that trust. The most recent example is that Google confirms what many have long suspected: that Google reads all e-mail, not its staff but its machines. Here’s an outtake from a Google motion in an on-going court process in the US (as reported by The Guardian):
“all users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing”
Processing in this case of course means searched for key-words, profiled per user, fed into big data analysis, stored for potential future use and sold to advertisers. (I am speculating, but on the other hand there may be more applications that even I can’t guess.) Plus, as recent developments have shown, released to the US authorities, at least if the subject is not a US-citizen. I guess we should not be surprised, Google’s Eric Schmidt (then CEO, now Chair) put it straight in a CNBC interview already back in December 2009: “If you have something you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place”.
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Netopia is shocked over developments in Egypt and concerned for the well-being of Netopia contributor Mariam Kirollos as well as other members of the movement for democracy and all the people of Egypt. This violence must come to an end. The Army must cease fire and seek a peaceful agreement with the Muslim Brotherhood in order to re-visit the democracy process. Human rights must be respected at all times by all.
