News Item: Don't Use Amazon. For Anything.
(Category: Computing Freedom)
Posted by Brad
Thursday 02 December 2010 - 16:19:00
I suppose I should thank amazon.com for providing a vivid example of a point I've been hammering on for years: if you trust your data to "the cloud," you're at the mercy of the cloud. The cloud (distributed internet servers) can leak your data, publish your data, delete your data, or hold your data for ransom...and you can't do a damned thing about it.
The current example is Wikileaks. If you hadn't heard, Wikileaks, in response to denial-of-service attacks, moved their files to different high-capacity servers on the Internet...including Amazon. Which Amazon was happy to do until they received a letter* from a staffer in the office of Senator Joe Lieberman. Not a court order, not a subpoena, not even a request from law enforcement -- just a self-important blowhard on a rant. At which point Amazon caved, without even notifying Wikileaks.
Is this someone to whom you can trust your data? Someone who won't even protect it to the limited extent the law allows? Who deletes your data at the first sign of some unpleasantness?
Look: if you have data that you can't afford to lose, you need to keep your own copies on your own computers. (Fortunately, Wikileaks did, and they're up on a new server.) If you have data that you can't afford to have compromised, you must retain physical control. Because you can't trust cloud providers, and most emphatically you can't trust Amazon.
Knappster wants to see an explanation from Amazon before doing any more business with them. I disagree. No empty reassurances written by a powerless PR flack are going to change the fact that Amazon has shown their true colors, for everyone to see. And at this point, nothing short of Amazon fighting a data-privacy battle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court would convince me that they can be trusted again.
Regarding other business relations, I'll be joining the Amazon boycott. I expect we'll be pulling our Amazon affiliate links (no great loss; they never paid anything). For purchases, there are plenty of other on-line booksellers out there, such as Barnes & Noble or (for Canadians) Chapters, plus of course my favorite, Abe Books.
Update: Amazon has issued a statement, and Knappster comments on it.
__________
* Possibly just a phone call; I've read conflicting reports.
This news item is from WendyMcElroy.com
( http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.3652 )
(Category: Computing Freedom)
Posted by Brad
Thursday 02 December 2010 - 16:19:00
I suppose I should thank amazon.com for providing a vivid example of a point I've been hammering on for years: if you trust your data to "the cloud," you're at the mercy of the cloud. The cloud (distributed internet servers) can leak your data, publish your data, delete your data, or hold your data for ransom...and you can't do a damned thing about it.
The current example is Wikileaks. If you hadn't heard, Wikileaks, in response to denial-of-service attacks, moved their files to different high-capacity servers on the Internet...including Amazon. Which Amazon was happy to do until they received a letter* from a staffer in the office of Senator Joe Lieberman. Not a court order, not a subpoena, not even a request from law enforcement -- just a self-important blowhard on a rant. At which point Amazon caved, without even notifying Wikileaks.
Is this someone to whom you can trust your data? Someone who won't even protect it to the limited extent the law allows? Who deletes your data at the first sign of some unpleasantness?
Look: if you have data that you can't afford to lose, you need to keep your own copies on your own computers. (Fortunately, Wikileaks did, and they're up on a new server.) If you have data that you can't afford to have compromised, you must retain physical control. Because you can't trust cloud providers, and most emphatically you can't trust Amazon.
Knappster wants to see an explanation from Amazon before doing any more business with them. I disagree. No empty reassurances written by a powerless PR flack are going to change the fact that Amazon has shown their true colors, for everyone to see. And at this point, nothing short of Amazon fighting a data-privacy battle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court would convince me that they can be trusted again.
Regarding other business relations, I'll be joining the Amazon boycott. I expect we'll be pulling our Amazon affiliate links (no great loss; they never paid anything). For purchases, there are plenty of other on-line booksellers out there, such as Barnes & Noble or (for Canadians) Chapters, plus of course my favorite, Abe Books.
Update: Amazon has issued a statement, and Knappster comments on it.
__________
* Possibly just a phone call; I've read conflicting reports.
This news item is from WendyMcElroy.com
( http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.3652 )