Is Google Evil?

Robert — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:55:43 +0000

In an opinion piece in this morning's San Francisco Chronicle called, "Is Google Evil?", Randall Stross discusses how Google is amassing a wealth of data on its users. This includes documents stored in Google Docs, discussions on Google Groups, personal appointments in Google Calendar, email in Gmail, photos in Picasa, etc. He summarizes his concerns as

Were the federal government to embark on collecting a cross-indexed collection of records of our lives with the same zeal as Google, how comfortable would we feel? Now, take away the accountability and transparency that we demand of our government and put the same information into an impenetrable black box held snugly by a for-profit company.

Stross isn't saying that Google is evil (or, I don't think he is). But it's certainly worth paying attention to where your personal data lives and who has access to it.

Pew Survey on Cloud Computing

Robert — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:59:03 +0000

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has published a study of Americans' use of "cloud computing," in which data and applications are stored online and are accessible via Web browsers.

As more and more nonprofits move to using hosted customer-relationship management tools (CRMs) and venture into the world of social networking sites where data and privacy is pretty loosely maintained, cloud computing should be on the mind of organizations as well.

The findings of the study include:

Robert L. Weiner: Nonprofit Fundraising Technology Consulting » Privacy

Is Google Evil?

Pew Survey on Cloud Computing