Sometimes I feel like the only person who cares about my freedom to direct my own life or the privacy and security of information about me. I bought a MacBook Air a couple of years ago because it seemed light and robust enough to carry around. The hardware meets expectations but so does the software. By this I mean I have always disliked Apple’s arrogant attitude (that is since before the Steve’s started building machines) and now ever so much more so. Let me give you a few examples.
“iCloud works by storing your information securely on a remote server. This online storage capability is also known as “cloud” storage. By securely storing your information online, you can access this information from any device, at any time.” Just what do they mean by “secure”? Any knowledgeable hacker with 2 minutes’ access to my MacBook can get my Apple ID and access to my iCloud account. Bingo — s/he has access to anything stored locally on my hard drive and everything in iCloud. How’s that for security?
OK. So I just won’t use iCloud. Try it. Most of the applications I want to use assume that iCloud will be enabled. The documentation on how to reset the defaults is obscure if it exists at all.
And about Apple help/support/documentation. Have you ever noticed how much of the text is devoted to how “awesome” your user experience is going to be and how little explanation there is about the structure of the software system you are expected to use? Sure, it’s intuitive if you only skim the surface of the program’s capabilities. But not if you are used to any other operating system.
I suppose I should keep my mouth shut while the Steve Jobs admiration frenzy is still in full swing but his legacy is haunting me. Apple is positioning itself to infiltrate every aspect of my existence: communications, entertainment, purchasing, my work (since most of that takes place online), and my movement around the planet. What is to prevent it from transitioning from tracking what I do to dictating what I am allowed to do?
I’m picking on Apple because of its offensive, public presumption that I will think everything it does is groovy but the threat is just as great from its competitors, Google, MicroSoft and others. These are corporations, organized for profit, not morality. They are bigger and better managed than the governments that purport to regulate them.
We are like the proverbial frogs submitting to slowly heating water. Regardless of the accuracy of that tale, the metaphor is still relevant. We are so enthralled with the neat things that we can do with highly-connected, computer technology that most of us are not attending to the pernicious possibilities. We are lulled by claims that our data is secure when only selected segments of the communication channels are protected by encryption. Most data is transmitted in the clear during some portion of its journey. We think of “the cloud” as some sort of heaven for data rather than a physical box full of memory chips under the control of human administrators and programmers. Don’t think for a minute that the security backdoors required by the NSA can’t be opened by anyone else.
What’s the solution? I’m not sure now any more than I was when my phone was tapped during the Viet Nam war. Although I speak out on occasions like this, I mostly lead a quiet, uncontroversial life. Let’s hope nobody notices.
