Data Ownership in the Cloud
June 20, 2013
Another voice cautions us about oversharing in the cloud. Will we listen? SC Magazine ponders “Online Ownership.” Writer Verity Sleeman laments that users of social sites from Facebook to Soundcloud continue to upload more and more personal information to the servers of others without considering who, exactly, retains legal rights to that data. In fact, for many the sharing begins long, long before they can have anything to say about it. The article charges:
“This is happening right now; devoted mothers are posting pictures of their children on social media sites. What rights will the children have to remove these pictures later in life? The law is very unclear on this point; for example Facebook ‘owns’ everything posted to it.”
It does not help that the pace of modern technology far, far outstrips the plodding of legislation and bureaucracy. Sleeman observes:
“Unfortunately for them, the people that make the rules are basing them on old paradigms, when the risks were different or non-existent. Pity the child who’s entire life is in the public domain and who was never made aware of the consequences.”
Of course, kids are not the only ones for whom personal data strewn through the cloud can be a problem. Sleeman is wise, and practical, enough to know there is no escaping the cloud now. She wouldn’t want to, she says, for she finds the technology useful. We just have to put some thought into the ways we use it. And the ways we let it use us.
Cynthia Murrell, June 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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