Sorry, people that freely release all their data to 3rd party clouds get what they deserve.

You can easily install "cloud" servers on our home PC and manage your own data synch without letting Google, Apple or the government get in your stuff to start with.

I'm not talking about music or movies, you have to buy them somewhere, someone already knows.

I'm talking about your actual personal files, keep those off the cloud before it's too late.

I hope most of us already know this! Again, not a conspiracy nut, just a private kind of guy.

Computers started out as a big machine wit h terminals. Then PCs. Then PCs LAN, then Internet then... the Gorg and Bing and the others up there are trying to return to the terminals... Arrgh!

Computers have always been in a constant cycle of decentralizing and centralizing over and over.

I think this is the final time we're totally centralizing just because it's too convenient not to and the control it takes away from everyone will eventually come back to bite them in the butt in a major way.

One scenarios is a disruption by hackers, another would be an EMP leaving people with all their stuff on wiped out computers, etc. Could even be a meteor like the one that detonated over Russia a couple of years ago.

Still clinging to my desktop, not like it would survive an EMP any better than any other machine.

Plus all the backups will get wiped.

I'm not sure how it's going to happen, I just know it eventually will happen.

It's inevitable.

Whew! I don't feel so alone any longer. :)

Most of my data files are on CD/DVD these days (not subject to EMP). The most current files are maintained on cuniform clay tablets. Also not subject to EMP... but water might make them go blooey. (sigh)

MEANWHILE, this report of SCOTUS does have some value, if the ruling actually goes that far to the cloud. That's the part we need to see at work. (Note: I am not holding my breath. I turn a rather unlovely shade of blue.)

Nephophobic, that's me. Not so much fear as loathing, mistrust. I will keep piling up redundant drives. I just prefer it that way.

Reading implications for cloud services into this ruling is speculation: the case was about the search of a suspect's hardware. To quote from the article:

The 28-page opinion penned by Chief Justice John Roberts explicitly avoids addressing a larger question about what’s known as the “third-party doctrine,” the notion that any data kept by a third party such as Verizon, AT&T, Google or Microsoft is fair game for a warrantless search.

... the case was about the search of a suspect's hardware.

Even still ... Only you can provide your own best security .. however you choose to handle your data, is up to you, and can indeed be quite telling.

My machines are mine .. I know what's there, and I have 100% total control over it.

If I lose data, then I'm the only one to blame -

This is an anti-cloud vote, though I'm glad for the theoretical extension of privacy.

Regarding data storage... unfortunately, neither hard drives nor optical media are even close to archival... and much software these days is trying to force us to "the cloud", and I do mean "force". Try to transfer a photo you took on your iPhone directly to a desktop machine.

Multiple copies on different media in separated physical locations can help. I wouldn't trust a laptop much more than I'd trust a phone. Connecting anything to the internet compounds some problems, though it does provide physical and mechanical separation.

I fear fire, flood and thieves in my office or home more than any government or corporation intrusion, but that doesn't take away from any of the points made by engine or tangor. It's just my practical priorities, thus I use the cloud as imperfect as it might be.

Of course, my records are deadly boring.

(It was suppose to be partly cloudy today; it's raining.)

I think people are reading too much into this. There's a big difference between the government looking at your private data without permission (e.g., the cops examining your cell phone) and companies having access to certain types of data that you've shared with them voluntarily.

If the Supreme Court wanted to protect your privacy from businesses, credit bureaus would have been shut down a long time ago.

I think what the SCOTUS did was reaffirm the 4th Amendment and that (reasonably) it will also allow same to apply to cloud storage, et al. As to whether that will be the case will eventually be determined at a future time and such challenge as made will be adjudicated.

This is not "webmaster" stuff in the cloud, this is personal data at the human level. This is, IMHO a move in the right direction.

Computers have always been in a constant cycle of decentralizing and centralizing over and over.

Not just computers, large companies work in the same way.

They will continue to record and analyze everything that transfers data, full stop.

and companies having access to certain types of data that you've shared with them voluntarily.

Is it really voluntary if you, for example, buy a mobile device without realising that it makes it difficult/impossible to transfer stuff between it and your desktop without passing it though the vendor's cloud?

Multiple copies on different media in separated physical locations can help.

I do that for important stuff.

Is it really voluntary if you, for example, buy a mobile device without realising that it makes it difficult/impossible to transfer stuff between it and your desktop without passing it though the vendor's cloud?

This is a perfect example of what is personal data that would require a warrant to view by law enforcement, et al. The device is NOT like the ordinary first search for dangerous weapons or evidence that might disappear... your device (phone, camera, etc.) is not a weapon or obvious contraband which might disappear... it is a physical device that contains your LIFE and DATA and in many cases is not just on that physical device, but on the CLOUD as well. I truly believe further adjudication will follow in that regard. I hope so.