[Ubuntu-eg] Stallman says cloud computing is a trap

[Amr Ali]

The problem is not privacy, what is privacy? It's BS, doesn't exist. If someone
wants privacy they should simply stop using the Internet, find a cave and
protect it against satellite thermal imaging, and stay there for good. Also it
is not about interfaces, Stallman is simply being stupid and ignorant by
suggesting that having your own mail-server or replicating any of today's
infrastructure technologies will help you in any significant way; absolutely
not! It's about Big Data and information dissemination.

There are just a few reasons that most "people" really need privacy for and they
are mostly unjustified and often ludicrous. There's no way you can assert the
privacy of a piece of information once it goes outside your machine; granted
there are methods to help you "feel" more secure, but truth of the matter is,
security in itself is a "feeling", it is an illusion, it's confidence built upon
the unlikelihood of a persistent adversary, and that's why we invented the
nomenclature of Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) which is used to account for
worst case scenario profiles of malware, individuals, and organizations. Nothing
can be secure or private indefinitely, it is theoretically impossible due to the
lack of an epistemological authoritative root that can assert the security or
privacy of any piece of information (e.g., Certificate Authorities are
pseudo-roots because who can be authoritative about their security? No one!)

I've helped build services that you just won't believe how accurately it can
pin-point your location and identify you out of millions of other users based on
very small data facets it collects once you visit any site that uses the service
(and you cannot do much about it btw unless you want to start using Lynx), it
sits on-top of billions of fingerprints. It is simply preposterous to even think
that you have significant control over anything that comes out of your computer.

</rant>

National security under today's challenges (i.e., the fact that the virtual can
and does affect the physical) forces governments to tap into the most fertile
pool of intelligence.. I've gone on and on about this on my blog
(http://d4de.tumblr.com/post/52374664591/thoughts-on-big-data-and-information-dissemination).

On 06/09/2013 10:13 PM, Eslam Mostafa wrote:
> Hey guys,
> while reading this article:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/29/cloud.computing.richard.stallman
> 
> i was offended by this "The concept of using web-based programs like Google's
> Gmail is "worse than stupidity", according to a leading advocate of free
> software." yeah felt stupid for a moment :D what does the guy use ?
> 
> "this mail has been sent using GMAIL"
> 
> -- 
> Eslam Mostafa,
> My Blog <http://cseslam.wordpress.com>
> My Website <http://eslammostafa.com>
> GNOME Memeber
> Python/js/GTK+ Developer
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Amr Ali