Cloud Computing May Draw Government Action

snydeq brings us this excerpt from InfoWorld: "Cloud computing will soon become an area of hot debate in Washington, as the increasing popularity of cloud-based services is putting pressure on policy makers to answer tough questions on the privacy and security of data in the cloud. For example: Who owns the data that consumers store on the network? Should law enforcement agencies have easier access to personal information in the cloud than data on a personal computer? Do government procurement regulations need to change to allow agencies to embrace cloud computing? So far, US courts have generally ruled that private data stored in the cloud doesn't enjoy the same level of protection from law enforcement searches that data stored on a personal computer does, said Ari Schwartz, COO of the Center for Democracy and Technology. 'I do think government has an almost infinite ability to screw up things when they can't see the future,' former Bill Clinton tech policy adviser Mike Nelson added. 'We have to have leadership that believes in empowering users and empowering citizens.'"

Comments

Re:Physical storage vs. virtual storage?

[Lord Flipper]

Also note that the people in Africa are so very poor largely because the people in power are crooks and thugs who derive advantage from their misery

That is, easily, the most uninformed, shallow and inaccurate explanation of what ails Africa that I have ever seen. And there's a lot of bullshit out there, so congratu-fucking-lations, you moron.

Here's a couple facts Mr I-Read-Maslow-Asshat:

• 1 - The basic story on political and military strife on that continent goes back to colonizers drawing arbitrary political boundaries, and ignoring tribal 'boundaries and areas of influence that had existed for centuries [see: divide & conquer]
• 2 - The UN's Food distribution programs, since World War II, have been dumping the same food products, on targeted areas, where those same products were already being grown, and available. [that's known as 'dumping', and yes, genius, it put the farmers out of business
• 3 - The World Health Organization gave multinational pharmaceutical conglomerates a 'pass' enabling them to dump expired/out=of-date antibiotics throughout the entire Continent [making it common for a lady w/a headache in Nairobi, to waltz in and buy 2000 ampicillin tabs in a grocery store [Put down Maslow and check out shifting-gen viruses, rise of AIDS and HCV, etc]
• 4 - Even five minutes of objective research will yield the fact that the chief explanation for malnutrition in Africa, is the peoples' inability to afford food [we use 14pounds of grain, here in the US, to make one pound of meat, and the taxpayers subsidize the corn guys, or is it McDonald's and Arby's etc, being subsidized. Either way, the thugs in Africa have a lot less to do with it, than the greedy, spoiled assholes over here. 'Your' self-absorbed ("not my problem, irrelevant") fellow asshats, in other words.

I suggest you augment your reading, and maybe try to focus on reading for retention, for a change. That welded shut mind might seem comfy, to you, but you probably should have educated it first. Oops.