The relatively short history of computing has seen the prevailing architecture go from centralized (mainframe), to decentralized (client/server), to hosted (remember ASP's), to the latest achievement, the "cloud". Every incarnation had benefits. Mainframes provided access to vast data stores, and managing versions of the software was straightforward. Essentially one copy of the software serviced all of the users. Client/server computing placed more power on the desktop, enabling feature-rich and resource-demanding applications to run with great efficiency. Hosting gave corporations a chance to offload the hard and soft costs of running enterprise applications, freeing corporate resources to be deployed elsewhere. And now, with cloud computing, it all seems to happen like magic. The computing and storage environment is totally transparent to the computing public. In fact, so compelling is this new layer of abstraction between the user and the computing environment that it is easy to forget that "computing" is even involved in the process. Corporations are surely the benefactors of this sea change in computing. But the consumer has been equally endowed with this "embarrassment of riches."
There is a side effect, though, to the transparency of this technical wizardry. And that is complacency on the part of the consumer. It has become so easy to incorporate new technology and accomplish wonderful things, and more often than not we don't question the actions we take and the permissions we give. Yes, there are watchdogs that look out for our interests, but much of their work resides in a technical domain that never reaches the constituency they intend to represent.
So the watchdogs do what they do and the rest of us do what we're told, with the promise of a bigger, better, faster, brighter platform to live our virtual lives on.
To illustrate the point, let's take a look a recent real-world example of the consumer taking his eye off the ball, and the givers of technology taking advantage.
Location Services from Apple is a handy capability of these devices. Location Services determine your present location (or your devices present location) by using a mix of cellular, Wi-Fi and global positioning system data. This can be immensely useful if you are looking for a good restaurant nearby, or a pharmacy or gas station. Yes, there's an app for that!
Apparently, though, app developers have been using Location Services to upload a persons address book, and photo and video streams, without clearly indicating they intend to do so. Apple's rules forbid copying photos and address book data. But the thorough screening process Apple uses to police its app store hasn't prevented them from approving many popular apps that collect that information.
Why do these companies want to copy your photos? It may not be as nefarious as it seems. Some photos store coordinate information. A photo taken with an iPhone, for example, is encoded with the specific location where the photo was taken. This information is useful to an app developer if they provide a service based on where you are at the time. It is not perfect all of the time, but in aggregate, it is incredibly powerful.
Here is the rub.
It is conceivable that an app could combine location data with photo coordinates to put together a map of where an Apple customer has been. And if that app uploads those sources of information to a server somewhere, all bets are off. Apple has no control over how these data are used by a third party app developer. This seems to be a loophole in Apples privacy policy. A customer can consciously decide to keep his photos on his phone, and take steps to do so. But if he finds the Location Services capabilities too powerful and useful to ignore, those photos could end up... anywhere.
The simplicity of consumer technology today has inoculated us against the healthy fear that our privacy is being potentially compromised. These handy and compelling tools seem to come wrapped in a tidy package of trust by default, which are evermore easy to opt into without considering the consequences.
John J. Lawson blogs about consumer Internet privacy, identity and reputation at http://mycyberiq.com/. You can email the author at john@mycyberiq.com.
