Remember when the clouds were only good for spoiling a sunny day? How times have changed. Today, the cloud can be used for all sorts of tech-related wizardry, and whether you're in the market for a new piece of software, a smartphone, a games console or even a car, everything is said to be made better by the much-vaunted power of the cloud.
It all sounds marvellous, doesn't it? And it can be, in the right scenario. Arguably the most common usage case exists on modern smartphones, all of which have the baked-in ability to take your photographs and store them automatically on a remote server. Apple calls it iCloud, Google calls it Drive and Microsoft calls it OneDrive, but they all offer the same promise - take a photo on your phone and you can have it whisked away into the cloud where it's kept safe for you to share with friends or access from any web-connected device.
"iCloud is easy to set up." ..... "iCloud lets you share what you want. With the people you choose." .....
"iCloud helps give you peace of mind." ~ Apple Corporation
That's the idea, but the past week's events have changed the forecast from cloudy to overcast. On August 31st, hundreds of private celebrity pictures were leaked onto the Internet, causing many to point fingers at iCloud and the misconception of cloud security.
The leak has dominated the week's news, but what has it meant to you, the consumers? Do you automatically upload photos from your smartphone to the cloud? Have recent events made you reconsider? And irrespective of the content, what would it take for you to trust a cloud storage solution? As always, join the debate using the comments facility below.
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