Steve Wozniak predicts lots of problems for cloud storage

[Shawn Knight]

To say that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak isn’t a fan of cloud storage would be a considerable understatement. Following a showing of Mike Daisey’s one-man monologue known as The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs last week, the Woz voiced his opinion with regards to storing personal data off-site and the trouble that lies ahead.

In short, Wozniak said he thinks the idea of everything going to the cloud is horrendous and there will be a lot of problems within the next five years. The problem, as he highlights, is that cloud users forfeit ownership of their data – it’s signed away the moment you agree to an EULA. He wants to feel like he owns things and that people tend to believe that because they access stuff from their computer, it’s still theirs.

Depending on whom you ask, cloud storage as a backup solution isn’t a terrible idea so long as it isn’t your only means of backup. An unfortunate but perfect example of this recently occurred as Wired writer Mat Honan’s iCloud account was compromised by a hacker.

Within minutes, the hacker had locked him out of his account and remote wiped his iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air. Judging by his blog post, it sounds like he might not have had a recent backup of his data either. Furthermore, his Google and Twitter accounts were also compromised and since his phone is linked to his Google Voice account, that service was also interrupted.

The moral of the story is to back up your data often and in more than one location.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/49686-steve-wozniak-predicts-lots-of-problems-for-cloud-storage.html

 

[Darth Shiv]

"The moral of the story is to back up your data often and in more than one location."

And use your own encryption layer for cloud storage so the service provider does not have access to your data either.

 

[Guest]

Alas, history has shown that the storage device that's lasted the longest in this imperfect world is parchment and vellum (that made from sheepskin and lambskin--see your local illuminated manuscript).

"In the cloud" is still on a server somewhere, and servers crash. I know the developers of "store it with us in the cloud!" see dollar signs clicking over in their accounts with every gig of theirs we use, but any computer user who's lived through the floppy, the microfloppy, and...anyone old enough to remember the promises of the Zip disks by iomega? "The Superfloppy preferred by millions!" I have some here. 100MB each, woohoo. They had a five-year warranty (limited, of course).

What I remember most about using them was known as "the click of death"--as in, "the disk makes a clicking noise when I put it into the nifty iomega Zip drive, but it doesn't read or write my data. It laughs at me and whispers, "Sucker!"

Wozniak's seen all of this. He knows the click of death will return and mean the same thing via cloud storage. ("Sucker!") And naive computer users everywhere will learn yet again (to paraphrase an old song from "Man of La Mancha) that if you store your life in clouds, it's prudent to recall that clouds are made of mist and nothing else much at all."

In the cloud is wonderful, really. I love both Google Drive and DropBox. They have their uses. But I'm not naive enough to trust them to keep my stuff safe. Nothing lasts forever. Nothing. In ten years, something else will come along and replace the cloud. Maybe we'll upload data directly into our brains and store it there.

I use the cloud but keep it local as well. I keep multiple media copies and ye olde paper print-outs as well. (The print-outs really are the absolute most reliable because they're not magnetic.) I spread it around, keep it safe. Trust no one to guard my data for me; they mean well (mostly), but when it comes to furiously spinning magnetic media, the last 28 years of using a variety of magnetic media has taught me the absolute #1 rule is not if it fails, but when.

Just as Wozniak has pointed out, and any experienced computer user knows.

 

[avoidz]

I use SkyDrive and sometimes upload files to Google Docs, but these are non-essential files, and nothing private. I would certainly never completely trust cloud services to store my data and have no local backup, that's just crazy. Like others have said, any user with years of IT experience going back to tape and floppies knows not to trust just one medium. Woz is right, in particular about the signing away of your rights to your own information.

 

[Adhmuz]

"The moral of the story is to back up your data often and in more than one location." And don't get hacked... But your also looking for problems if you trust all your data to a single Account system, in this case iCloud, but they can all potentially be compromised. Offline backup is the only safe way to thwart a Hacker from destroying everything, or better yet don't become a target in the first place.

 

[oldikes]

the cloud is a great accessory. lord knows I love dropbox. but I find it utterly ridiculous to try pushing this idea that all of your data can and will be stored on the cloud. Why would you do that when it is faster AND more convenient to access your data where and whenever you want. And if you are paying for a data plan so you CAN access the cloud mostly everywhere, then flash storage/HDDs can be cheaper, too.
Its a loss to not be able to access data anywhere. The cloud is no replacement for on site storage, for privacy, stability, reliability, and accessibility. As a means of backup or sharing files it is a great utility, but not any means as primary data storage and access.

Sorry for the rant, but its really been annoying me how everyones pushing the cloud when its not a means of primary storage. Ive spent my whole tech life knowing where all my IMPORTANT data is, and safegaurding it, and its not ideal to have it floating around on the internet, with the possibility of losing it at any time.

 

[Guest]

I use Skydrive as a secondary backup, with a hard disk as primary backup. Old stuff gets burned onto bdr. No way I would trust any personal or critical data to the cloud. I value security far more than convenience.

 

[ReederOnTheRun]

I use Skydrive as a secondary backup, with a hard disk as primary backup. Old stuff gets burned onto bdr. No way I would trust any personal or critical data to the cloud. I value security far more than convenience.

Same here, but with Google Drive and Dropbox for extra space. Am I the only one who was surprised Apple lets you remote wipe all your devices from the cloud? I mean, in what situation would a legitamite user need that? I guess if someone stole all of their stuff, but it would probably be better to put a turn on location services and remove remembered passwords options instead.

 

[gwailo247]

Yep, I also use cloud storage only for transferring non essential files between PCs, tablet and phone without the need to use a USB drive or something.

My files are kept on one hard drive in my computer, a second hard drive that I use with an external dock, and the most essential files go onto a large capacity thumb drive.

Enough companies get hacked. I don't need to get an apology from one of these places when all my data is stolen.

 

[psycros]

Hopefully at some point Woz has called Daisey out for the many fabrications in his little dog act.

 

[Guest]

Finally. Found one thing in common with Apple [co-founder].

Cloud storage. No thanks. There is such thing as privacy and nobody will convince me that data stored on-line is safe. Mr Wozniak is very much right. Me personally, never stored anything on-line, not storing right now, and never will. Simple as that. Cloud storage is only for Face**** generation who couldn't care less about on-line surveillance.

 

[treetops]

"is that cloud users forfeit ownership of their data"

That sucks, so research, naked photos and anything else you may have uploaded they can now publish and do what they want with it?

 

[Chris Just]

I will never use the cloud to store anything! My backups 1) Hard copy's 2) Local encrypted hard drives 3) Private offsite servers also encrypted. I don't trust people that work for me with some of my files why would I trust anyone I don't know? With hackers breaking in to companies and government servers all the time now a day, it is just unsafe and unwise!

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Just think... if the cloud had been first and large storage hard drives were just hitting the market, we'd all be talking about how it would be to be able to store our stuff on our very own PCs. The cloud is completely a solution in search of a problem. Everyone wants us tied to their service, but the cloud isn't a benefit for us.

 

[Guest]

never mind that wireless providers are more and more charging for measured amounts of data. what do you do when you go over your data limit and therefore cant access your data or play your random "cloud" radio station? It just seems stupid to me that everyone wants to store everything on the cloud at the same time providers are more and more limiting data usage...

 

[Guest]

Cloud servers still expensive for enterprise businesses. If I have money to spend for my own hardware I should keep them in my possession.And I should be able to maintain with my own stuff.

 

[SNGX1275]

"is that cloud users forfeit ownership of their data"

That sucks, so research, naked photos and anything else you may have uploaded they can now publish and do what they want with it?

If thats true, I'm boned I have a lot of data and my mostly completed thesis up there. I really doubt they care about what I'm researching though. Now maybe if I was researching/developing something that was a potential competitor to their service....

 

[Guest]

Honestly, how many people actually read the EULA on software use? I think most people hit the agree button to get there faster.