Mike's WISE-Cracks

Another blog regarding data security and overall attitude toward internet and information technology concerns vs. safety.

Basecamp, Salesforce, Google Docs, etc… Could cloud back-end computing powers like these feel enough temptation to breach user data usage policies / ethics and take a peak at your information? Or what if they experience a breach from the outside? It should be noted, these 3 were selected simpling because of stature and range as web applications, not because of any personal issue I have encountered with these products.

As unlikely as it seems for the best of hackers to be able to penetrate these networks successfully and undetected, are you telling me it’s impossible for anyone of the millions of angry-vigilante computer science geniuses of the world to do it? For now I want to concentrate more on the internal archiving of client submitted data stored on a non-proprietary [to the client user] web application. Although the hacker bit should be discussed further at some point, if I forget to write about it make sure you don’t!

For the more curious and paranoid types, this will sound more perfectly plausible than it will to most others. However the normative perception isn’t always right, in fact it’s often mediocre… and historically often flawed: à la organized slavery or the so-called “righteous nature” of Patriot Act.

How safe is our info? I am an internet marketer, is my client list safe sitting in my Google Docs account? What about my company’s economic data in Salesforce, is it safe? How does one even define “safe”? What if it’s visible from the inside, but not being used against me? Or not being used to make ancillary profit by the company whose web application is storing it? Is it then something to just live with? I’ve always felt funny about giving my social security number and back account information to all these different “entities” in my life, but now I’m starting to sound like an older generation, internet novice living in a neurotic cocoon.

Or is it as simple as: “We don’t have a choice, we should trust them and save ourselves the headache of trying to resolve something inevitable!”

I’d still air on the side of caution with the most sensitive of materials. I mean no need for anyone to Stumble Upon to my birth certificate and passport, right :-/ ?

Not to be a pessimist, or as I prefer, a realist (my friends are laughing somewhere), but is it even really safe on the desktop anyway? Better yet, how much does this “data” matter in the grand-scheme of things? Is it supplementary to our identity? For some, is it our Identity? Where does it end? Could Mel Gibson make another conspiracy movie about the government raiding his mind and stealing his thoughts? Wait – DiCaprio already did that: Inception – Stealing Confidential Information.

I suppose my last thought is that although it is a legitimate concern to consider the layers of security and the potential embezzlement of our 3rd party web-app stored data, we all need to stop taking the over-rationalized world of information technology so damn seriously. Philosophically we can’t live as data-hypochondriacs, preëmptively protecting our precious data while losing access to such raw business tools (like the aforementioned), their bottom-line benefits, and significant pieces of sanity and competency in our behavioral cognition’s!
Stop and smell the roses more often than not, fill your hearts and minds with love not fear, BUT if your taken advantage of, find a really good hacker and go after the soulless companies that cheated you into your spiteful vengeance! … for the record I am not advocating hacking or the unlawful acts of breaching information technology securities, rather just practicing some colorful sense of humor ; – ).

Check out more on the internet and internet marketing practices from Bay Area Ensight Internet Marketing.

Until Next Time,

Mikey

Michael Bhrad Bay Area Web Design & SEO Consultant | Internet Marketing Consultant Profile

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