Who Do You Trust?
January 6th, 2009 by ComputerBob
From email accounts to web site creation to data backups, online providers like Google now offer an almost-staggering selection of free online services to anyone who has a web browser and Internet access.
Is there anyone among us who thinks that they do it purely out of altruism rather than the desire to make a profit?
A couple of years ago, it caused a big furor when Google announced that it would sift through every single GMail email message, looking for opportunities to advertise to its GMail customers.
I’m disappointed that nowadays, I don’t hear anyone even discussing the issue any more.
But I still think about it. And I’m not willing to trade my data privacy for a free email account.
Why not? — Almost everyone else does. Even governments are thinking of using online services from Google and other companies to store all of the private data that they have about each of us, as well as all of our medical records.
We’ve all seen plenty of examples of security breaches that have caused plenty of people’s confidential data to become public.
I’m afraid that in the near future, cybercriminals are going to be treated to an all-you-can-steal buffet of private, confidential data that’s going to cause an explosion of identity thefts and other security problems that will dwarf the current problems.
And your tax dollars will pay for that buffet.
The simple fact is that I don’t trust Google or any other free online service to treat my important or private data with an appropriate level of care and concern for my confidentiality.
And I’m not alone in feeling that way.
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Tags:
Consumer Info, Cybercrime, Internet, Personal, Security