Introduction
We live in 2024, where seems impossible to think about pen and paper, use a camera, or not use social media. The Internet is the most used tool ever. All companies are going full cloud. They host all their services and store all their data on different cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform on average. This big step, and not in a glorious way, was a change that no one expected but still did not think about. In some way, we didn’t think that we were using all cloud services and depending on the internet and not owning any of the data when this was never a thing. It’s like we are just living without knowing what happened and just going with the flow.
In this post, I would like to give my thoughts about this change on life.exe as well as how I think this is going to go and what you should do to not enter the function.
Why we use it for everything?
The Internet is a great way to communicate, get a job, watch some videos, etc. But now, it’s something more than just a tool. It’s part of ours. Do you remember when we had to buy books for school, buy pencils and pens and use a dictionary? Yeah, those were cool times… It was all about being present, not fancy and useless shit. We use things for a reason, to achieve or learn about something. Nowadays, it’s more as if we were all smoking a cigarette. Addicted all the time just for the sake of it and not for a specific reason. And this also applies now to cloud services. If I want to create a document to print afterward, why do I have to use Google Docs, for instance? Why do people do that? Before, you used to create a document on Word or LibreOffice, and now a cloud service for printing it at home. It does not make any sense to me. You are not using all the power of your computer you paid for.
I get that you may want to create a document and collaborate with a colleague or a friend. Alright, that’s why the internet exists, to connect machines and hence, people. But, all the stuff you create and store online? Why are you syncing everything? Do you watch all of that another time? I don’t think so. It has become an obsession to sync everything just because. If you can’t access some notes from your phone you may panic. When did that start to happen? And no, COVID-19 does not apply here, we were doing it before that was deployed into the server. Will you give your home keys to a random person and the address? Probably not. So why do you do it on the internet?
By doing all of this, all we do is give power to others. Why? Well, the more services you use the more your data is distributed. Imagine we upload to a cloud service our bills and taxes, our medical appointments, our house location, and more. Those documents can be leaked, an incident can occur and your valuable things can go into the wrong hands. Also, the more your data is distributed, the more retarded people will handle your data, which means more issues. Alright, you have nothing to hide, but then why do you close the bathroom door? Anyways… Let’s say in addition to uploading documents you consume media. What you do with that is let those companies know what you like. And, you may think as I thought before. That’s better! They can personalize the ads so I don’t see shit I don’t like and I get recommendations about my interests. And, let me tell you, that’s not valuable. Yes, fuck yes, I got an interesting video to watch! Oh, wait! Now another one, sorry I was distracted by an ad. By saying this, I mean that all you are doing is making those companies know your patterns so you are plugged in forever instead of doing something else that may provide you, at least, with the same value as a minimum.
Why is the cloud not good for everything? Because you may be paying from two to ten dollars for your monthly subscription. All services are now subscription-based. I have a lot to say about that as well… Those companies can raise the pricing as they want, but if you stop paying you will not be able to use it anymore so you end up paying anyway and think is worth it. And, again, let me tell you, it’s not. This does not apply just to pricing, it can be to anything. Policies may change without any previous notification. They may disable a feature you like for instance, now they make a free feature a paid feature. Or maybe they can change how the app works and affect your workflow. In Europe we are under the GDPR so if something related to privacy and data collection is changed, companies may let you know some days in advance. But they still do it.
What I don’t get is we are using all the tools we already have on our computers, on the cloud. Maybe that’s not necessary and you may expose information that you should not and you may care once the incident happens and there is no rollback there.
Conclusion
Cloud
- Algorithms will persuade you and make lose time on shit instead of doing what you have to do.
- Pricing can go up.
- Data can be lost or stolen.
- You will pay forever (Life as a Service).
- Sensitive data can be leaked.
- Policies can change, so your workflow will.
- Data can be ransomed.
- Everything gets so slow. Network dependency.
Offline
- You have control of your data.
- You just pay once.
- Nothing should be leaked if under control and secured.
- NO policies apply (if you go open source).
- Speed is insane.
- You are more mindful.