INTERNET - Apple's iCloud

"Apple Unveils New iCloud Music Service, but Privacy Issues May Lurk"
PBS Newshour 6/6/2011


Excerpt from transcript, security

RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): If I put my stored and accumulated content on the cloud, is it private?

CECILIA KANG, The Washington Post: Well, that's a good question.

The -- the devices will be encrypted. And that's what Apple said in passing. But there's a lot of questions as to your privacy and the security of cloud-based applications, Internet-based services. We have seen a lot of attacks on information, hacking attacks into Sony, Nintendo, PBS. You have seen a lot of these -- this -- the vulnerability of information that resides on the Internet.

And when I say it resides on the Internet, I mean that it resides on servers. You don't know where they are, but there are large data farms all over the country around the world, where bits -- your bits and pieces, the bits, I should say, of the music that you have, the videos that you have, the bits, the actual digital packets, they reside in these places that you don't really as much control of.

So, when you make this decision to switch to cloud-based applications, it's much easier, more convenient and often much cheaper. But there often is the -- there is the consideration of a tradeoff, perhaps, in that there may be less security involved. It's much safer when you have your information on your own computer that only you can access than on the Internet.

And your privacy is also perhaps in -- in question, in that more people, more companies have access to what you're doing. And they can see what you're doing online.