Slashdot | Google’s Gdrive Raises Instant Privacy Concerns

“The rumor mill is already raging over the potential functionality and capacity for Google’s online storage service we talked about earlier this week (the company says ‘it makes sense’ to put all its Web apps under the same umbrella). But Internet rights advocates are now crying foul over liability issues, a probable lack of encryption and an cash-cow model that could scan all your personal data for advertising keywords. From the article: “‘Google would be wise to offer users an option to encrypt your information,’ says Nimrod Kozlovski, a professor of Internet law at Tel Aviv University. ‘It really needs to have really detailed explanations of what the legal expectations are for storing your info.’”"

Frankly, I don’t understand the concern.

To start with, nobody is going to force you to use their service.  If you’re that worried about Google mining your data, don’t put it there.  Use a more secure service, or set up your own webserver.

If you do decide to use Google’s service, expecting them to encrypt your data for you is kind of silly.  If they have the cleartext at any point in time your privacy has already been compromised.  If they store your encryption key for your your privacy has already been compromised.  If you are going to trust Google to do the encryption and store the key…well, why not just trust them not to do horrible things to your cleartext in the first place?

If you’re really concerned about privacy just use something like TrueCrypt (or any other decent encryption software) to encrypt your data first, and then upload it.  Garontees your privacy, regardless of what Google’s policies may be.

Well, Invisible War ended just about the way I thought it would.  Showed up back on Liberty Island and all three sides wanted me to win the war for them.

The Dentons wanted me to bring about their vision of a “perfect democracy” - every person biomodded until they all had identical capabilities, nobody stronger or smarter than anyone else.  And everyone tied into Helios so their thoughts/opinions could instantly be processed into rules/regulations/laws.  No thanks.

The Illuminati wanted me to give them the secret of the Dentons’ biomod technology, so they could empower a few chosen people to rule over the rest of the world.  No thanks.

The Templars wanted me to work with them to develop a biomod predator of some sort, to destroy all biomodification in the world and restore everything to “normal”.  Again, no thanks.

I was trying to figure out which of these undesirable choices I was going to pick when Leo contacted me with a new plan - kill them all.  Wipe out all three parties and let the world figure itself out.  So that’s exactly what I did.  I killed off the Dentons, killed off the Illuminati, killed off the Templars…and apparently kicked off a global disaster far worse than the Collapse that JC caused.  Looks like I plunged the world into one hell of a long war that ultimately resulted in the extinction of humankind as we know it - with only the Omar remaining.

It wasn’t exactly the outcome that I expected…  I didn’t realize the Omar would wind up taking over the world…  But it isn’t like there was any other outcome possible, I just hurried things along a bit.  With their group mind and extensive biomodding the Omar are just plain superior to the rest of humanity.  It was only a matter of time before they took over.

Invisible War was fun…  It was a good waste of time…  But ultimately I’m not very impressed with it.  I really wanted something more like Deus Ex, and Invisible War is just plain too watered down.  A lot of the things that made Deus Ex so good are just plain gone.  So I’ve still got a hankering for some Deus Ex…  I’m going to have to see if I can locate my discs and load it up.

Well, we did it.  We picked up our kittens last night - Grim and Jinx.

I’ll get some pictures up here as soon as they slow down enough to be captured on film.

The plot is finally starting to come together in Invisible War…  I stumbled across the Illuminati, and met JC Denton.  Wound up facing off with one of the other Tarsus students in a battle to save JC Denton’s life…

I guess that was supposed to be fairly climactic - facing off with one of your old school chums with the fate of the world in the balance.  But really, I had an easier time killing her than all the other guards I’ve been mowing down.  Not to say that the fight was easy - she had a lot of backup along with her - but I had fewer qualms about killing her.  I’ve been using the tranq gun on everyone I can…but I didn’t bother with her.

She gives a big speech about how you’ve never had to fight a friend before…  But the last time I spoke to her was back in Cairo.  She hasn’t really been developed into a terribly interesting character.  I really didn’t feel any kind of bond to her at all…

So JC wants to create some kind of “perfect democracy”…  I guess we’re supposed to sympathize with his goals since he was the hero of Deus Ex, but I’m not sure that I like his plan.  Sure, it sounds nice on paper…  But what if you don’t want to be part of this perfect democracy?  What if you don’t want Helios listening in on your every thought?  What if you don’t want to be completely equal to everyone else - not outstanding in any way, shape, or form?  He doesn’t seem to have any allowances for individuality…

I can guess how this is going to end…  When I get to Liberty Island all three factions are going to want me to advance their agenda.  JC will want me to somehow trigger his Perfect Democracy, the Templars will want me to kill JC and destroy all nanotechnology, and the Illuminati will want me to give them JC’s secret nanotechnology so they can use it to take over the world.  Frankly, none of those choices sound all that appealing…

Well…  It had to happen eventually…  We’ve got snow on the ground.  Not much of it, only an inch or so, but it’s there.