Google is to launch a service that would enable users to access their personal computer from any internet connection, according to industry reports. But campaigners warn that it would give the online behemoth unprecedented control over individuals’ personal data.
The Google Drive, or “GDrive”, could kill off the desktop computer, which relies on a powerful hard drive. Instead a user’s personal files and operating system could be stored on Google’s own servers and accessed via the internet. The long-rumoured GDrive is expected to be launched this year, according to the technology news website TG Daily, which described it as “the most anticipated Google product so far”. It is seen as a paradigm shift away from Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which runs inside most of the world’s computers, in favour of “cloud computing”, where the processing and storage is done thousands of miles away in remote data centres.
The loss of a laptop or crash of a hard drive does not jeopardise the data because it is regularly saved in “the cloud” and can be accessed via the web from any machine. The GDrive would follow this logic to its conclusion by shifting the contents of a user’s hard drive to the Google servers. The PC would be a simpler, cheaper device acting as a portal to the web, perhaps via an adaptation of Google’s operating system for mobile phones, Android. Users would think of their computer as software rather than hardware.
It is this prospect that alarms critics of Google’s ambitions. Peter Brown, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, a charity defending computer users’ liberties, did not dispute the convenience offered, but said: “It’s a little bit like saying, ‘we’re in a dictatorship, the trains are running on time.’ But does it matter to you that someone can see everything on your computer? Does it matter that Google can be subpoenaed at any time to hand over all your data to the American government?”
You should be advised to get your head examined if you were to use this service. Unless, of course you don’t have anything to hide, and who doesn’t have at least something on their computer they would like to keep private?
White House e-mail crisis continues:
Tech “savvy” Obama staff already broke the email system.
http://washingtontimes.com/weblogs/technology/2009/Jan/26/white-house-e-mail-crisis-continues/
Pretty funny. Shouldn’t let kids into sensitive equipment.
I am coming to imagine Google, the Feds, Yahoo, and a host of others as being a bunch of sick perverts running around with their heads rammed up everybody’s butt’s
For some reason I find this unattractive.
#31 – Paddy-RAMBO
>>Tech “savvy” Obama staff already broke the email
>>system.
Christ, Paddy-RAMBO. Are you so discomfited by all the lies that you’ve been caught in lately that you have to try a stunt like this?
Your link to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Moonie paper in no way supports the absurd notion that Obama’s tech “savvy” staff had anything whatsoever to do with the email breakdown.
And not only did they not cause the breakdown of the White House email server, they also did not cause the breakdown of the Blackberry “network”, and all the different servers that Blackberries connect to.
This looks like just another attempt by the Moonies to try and portray the Obama administration as inept, but even THEY do not make the claim that Obama’s tech “savvy” staff had anything to do with it.
Jesus, Paddy-RAMBO. When you’re beat, just quit. This silliness only makes you look more laughable than you already do.
These guys look gay, from top to bottom – pitching, catching, pitching, catching.
Yup, I agree, this jes ain’t gunna fly.
Storage is cheap. I too have a ton of “confidential” files, mostly photographs I don’t want on the internet.
There is also the bandwidth issue. If every one of us ended up using the internetwebtubies to send information currently saved on your drives, they would get plugged up with paper and just quit working.
Thanks, but maybe next MB and CPU upgrade I will get more storage. That should be in about two or three months.
I might consider using this instead of the Amazon S3 storage I’m paying for now IFF GDrive offers encrypted storage, with the key never being uploaded to Google. I encrypt my AS3 data now, so even if Amazon were to be subpoenaed, the authorities would still have to decrypt the data before they could use it. Of course, my AS3 isn’t the primary storage, it’s a backup copy. I’d use GDrive the same way, as a backup store, not as the primary store.
#18
#18 My music library alone is greater than 50 GB. Add in my Operating system and some games and my desktop has 160 GB used out of 465. This on my gaming machine which came with no office/productivity suites, crapware, etc.
No porn, on this machine anyway.
Security aside. Why would you want slower computing experience than you have now with a monthly fee to top it off?
There is something to what bobbo said. I am a geek, so I use Portable Apps on a thumb drive. It has Firefox with all of my bookmarks, Open Office, and a couple other useful programs. It doesn’t save cookies or passwords. Otherwise, there’s really nothing on it that would concern me if I lost the drive.
16, Nothing stops them..
BUT, expecting the CLOUD to hold data, and be permanent…is like EXPECTING not to loose your cell phone, or that you COMPUTER with all its passwords to sites, WONT FAIL.
Its just as easy to COPY your data and carry it with you, as it is to set it IN THE CLOUDS.
Carry your photos and other data with YOU is better…in that the OTHER system only needs a DVD READER..NOT a HIGH SPEED ACCESS to the internet and the CLOUD.
#26 – comhcinc said, “they are tools and they have their appropriate times and uses. just because they can’t always be used doesn’t mean they are worthless.”
Sir, the shift key on your keyboard is also a tool. You really should learn to use it. It helps make reading what you want to convey much less painful for people.
1#
standard 256bit desktop encryption is moot point with 2.4 terraflop power available *on the desktop now*
if the military wants your encrypted data they could brute force even 4096bit in short order it with their 1 Petabyte (thats 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second) -that’s what they’ve published anyway….no doubt, russia probably has something meets or exceeds that as well.
when google stated nothing is private “privacy
is an illusion” a few months back, they were’nt kidding.
-as to why this might become mainstream *requirement* in the not too distant future
i posit this..
The BDI (Baltic Dry Index) is relatively flat..
it dropped 93%+ since july.. Nothing is getting shipped except bare essentials..if that. (its the indicator of global trade,
-actual hired freighters with cargo and
a route
there are hundreds if not thousands of freighters sitting in around moored in bays
or in ports loaded with good but cant get shipped, because banks wont issue L/C’s (letters of credit) to goods owners to pay for transport..
almost *nothing has been shipped* since late october.. we in the US are living off of the huge overstock run up in July. this esp includes electronics.. (this is why you saw many *everything must go sales/inventory clearance sales* -many business planned to go out of business at the end of january)
very soon, due to a failing dollar and short supplies..we will see prices jump like mad on everything..
soon the global warming scam artists will get their extreme carbon taxes for the global government agenda will be levied upon all industries..not to mention the their latest
scam “peak ecological water” just hitting the news the past 2 weeks..
mind you the amount of co2 and water needed
to produce semiconductors it quite excessive…esp in the eyes of the EcoTerrosrist. the energy sector will be hit hard with cap & trade and carbon taxes..aluminum, used heavily in semiconductors
need alot of electricity and water, iirc..is another…
long story short.. the cost of power, (to your mains too) the fines against the polluters,
your carbon footprint..the bond market/USD about to go bust…all will make owning a high power PC/Mac most like a sin, if not outright illegal if the current madness gets its way..
you may very well may be *compelled* to own a low power (say 50watt) Green PC that stores all its data on a Green GDrive. and if the coming Police state has it’s way, i wouldn’t be surprised if Patriot Act 3 has an “all your data belongs to us” mandate in it in the name of National Security and the fight on the bogus war on terror..
extremest view, yes. far fetched… no..if your stuck in bed all day with chronic pain
and have nothing better to do but read the hundreds of market analysts articles and take the time to seek and learn how to read all the gov reports and financial..
My advice.. by up all the electronic/PC spare parts now while prices are still depressed,
(and your local fiat currency is still worth more than the paper its printed) on esp parts that wear (moving parts) like fans, hard drives and extra SD cards and USB keys..(they have limited write cycles and DO wear out.)
remember, for some reason the current admin said they had 200 days to get all their policies/work done..in which he has warned “unpopular policies” will be have to be made..
the writing is on the wall..take heed.
just a thought..
-s
(dont forget to get some storable food..
global food shortages on the NWO agenda too
google global food shortage 2009 for some clues..) -gotta eat while your geeking out, (well coffee, at least)
ps..on the water shortage..why do you think the Bush’s have bought close to 300k hectares of land situated on top one of the largest fresh water aquifers in paraguay that last few years?
Most personal data takes up such little hard drive space, it doesn’t make any sense to store it in the “cloud”. Not when removable flash drives are a simple and cheap data backup solution. I don’t see the need for the “cloud” to provide data backup.
However, application software in the “cloud”, might prove a great way to boost the power of handheld devices. You cellphone or palm pilot might not ever run Vista applications. But if such devices could be linked to servers that did. Then handhelds would only have to handle the linkage and display software. While some super computer somewhere, ran the apps. But I still wouldn’t trust such devices with too much personal data. Not even if it were encrypted.
I can’t help but wonder if the NSA isn’t behind this “cloud computing” concept? And their super-computer farm, could probably crack any weak encryption that the government would allow the “cloud” to use. Maybe even provide some with a backdoor, so the gov. could “protect us from terrorists”, whenever they felt the need to pry. One wonders how much of this is good old industry espionage, for whoever pays the NSA enough? They may not be interested in Joe Average’s diary. But perhaps some project notes of a business competitor’s research team. Giving an “Intel” a heads up as to what an “AMD” was up to.
#19–Mustard==cookies huh? I never erase them because I hate looking up my passwords. So cookies do more than just log you into/onto your account. At newegg, they have my ordering history (at least during the return period)–all THAT is on the hard drive as well? Seems like a complicated cookie, but I accept your correction.
#40–Pinkerton==you raise my favorite answer to any clever notion of choose: I always answer “both.”
Who among us won’t have our cloud account on a key chain thumb drive and the bulk of our computing at home on the desk? I assume thru the cloud we will be able to remotely control our home unit? How much more can I be tethered to this machine????
I enjoy options, especially when I get both.
#42, GetSmart,
Don ya jes hate it wen thet happens?
This morning I had a connection outage- my provider was doing some maintenance. I was still able to do work on my local network.
If I had a thin client and relied on the cloud, I would’ve been SOL.
The cloud may be fine for non-critical apps/data, but I think I’ll pass for now.
Does it suffice for the average non-techie? Maybe- until they have a similar experience to mine.
I have nothing to fear or hide so we should allow warrantless wiretapping of the masses.
I have nothing to fear or hide so we should allow imprisonment of the masses without due process of law.
Certainly you may waive away all of your rights to being a citizen if you like, but please do not condemn others for wishing to retain theirs.
You go ahead and be one of them sheeple we hear so much about.
Are we going to have to sign away are right to seek damages in order to use the system?
I’ll bet exactly that is in the EULA. If you rely on this for anything but convenient access to a second copy of your stuff, you’re a fool.
# 44 soundwash said, “if the military wants your encrypted data they could brute force even 4096bit in short order it with their 1 Petabyte (thats 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second) -”
Umm. No. For instance, the memory requirements to break an RSA 1620 bit key, would be a computer with 100 Terabytes of memory before attempting it. That memory requirement almost totally rules out distributed cracking methods.
I love it that the supposedly techie commenters here insist that there is no possible reason you could need high amounts of storage other than porn.
Reminds me of Bill Gates saying 640K of RAM ought to be enough for anybody.
Just goes to show that smart != wise
#44 soundwash, #52, Paddy-O —
Um, a petabyte is a measure of memory, not processor speed. Perhaps you meant petaflop.
And Paddy-O, the ability to brute force a key from encrypted data has nothing do to with size of available RAM. Most brute force programs run in less than a few hundred K – they’re built for speed.
Even using AES-256 with a 63 byte key, that gives:
5.24 × 10^151 (more than a googol)
possible key combinations. It would take longer than the expected life of the Universe to brute force a well randomized key from encrypted data with just that simple encryption, even with a petaflop machine. Even with a petaflop-petaflop machine it would take 5.24*10^50 seconds. The age of the Universe is about 4.12*10^17 seconds. Encrypt twice with 2 different 63 byte random keys, and you have 1.48 * 10^22,802 possibilities. Adios, brute force.
# 54 BubbaRay said, “And Paddy-O, the ability to brute force a key from encrypted data has nothing do to with size of available RAM.”
Sure, use a small amount of RAM and increase the REAL computational time as much as you want…
“Solutions for challenges in brute-force attacks are typically held in RAM or some type of database within the attacking system.”
“Consider a cipher size of 32 bits. An attacker must store or calculate nearly 4.3 billion combinational solutions for this cipher size. Considering the fact that it typically takes about 100 ms to complete a challenge/response authentication sequence, a brute-force attack will take close to 817 years to search for a guaranteed solution.”
To all you guys who insist you have nothing to hide, so you don’t care if anyone snoops: if you had nothing of value in your house, wouldn’t you still mind if someone broke in and poked around?
GDrive? maybe GD-Drive.
#52: Paddy..
considering the pentagon (rumsfeld)
back on 9/10/2001 stated they could not track or account for $2.3 trillion dollars and by some accounts now, the US Treasury cannot account for $3.3 trillion..
given this..it is not a far stretch to imagine the technology exists already, esp if one adds to that the fact that the patented technology to *power* such a monstrous computer existed in the early 1900’s. -evident to the 4000 plus`energy patents under lock and key in the name of course, of national security.
and this is just a US perspective.
grounded in knowable facts, your right.
-but i do not think its absurd to think
clandestine technology is much further along
than one can imagine. (if that make sense)
on topic…GDrive imo, is only good for the most mundane of data. the security issues alone make it way to risky imo.
-i *can* see it being a great source of income
in the future for lawyers, however.
-s
-s
I think I will pass on that offer.
# 58 soundwash said, “Paddy.. considering the pentagon (rumsfeld)…”
I have dealt with providing security s/w & the US Intel area. I know at what level of encryption (for export especially) that the CIA & NSA want to see the source code because of limitations of their inability to brute force decrypt.
High level PGP will keep your data safe unless they spend years trying.
#55, Paddy-O, I don’t know from what outdated source you quoted, but today’s brute force methods are computationally bound, not RAM bound.
One need only look at just a very few blocks of cipher text and decoded text at a time to determine if plaintext has been reached (key discovered). This places no monster burden on RAM whatsoever. There is no need to store failed attempts.
Whatever, it doesn’t matter, since you’re still not breaking my AES-256 encrypted file with any brute force program you choose to use. So the argument is unimportant.