A news article I read yesterday has me wondering. The news article here talks about how certain Cisco/Linksys routers have last week automatically upgraded their firmware using a factory default setting. That in itself is not bad. What is bad however is how Cisco have chosen to tie the router into the Cisco Connect Cloud so tightly that they now control it and can monitor everything you do. What makes it worse still is that according to their own privacy policy, they reserve the right to terminate your access should they deem what you do to be pornographic in nature… hang on… this is your router and your internet connection and now your router vendor gets to decide what they feel is pornographic in nature? There are other things too that they may deem as “bad things” that might get you terminated as well.
What scares me here, is that once you are “in the cloud” you are subject to the whims of the cloud owner and they may very well decide to change what they feel is acceptable. You will likely find out when you breach their policy and they restrict/remove service to you. Not cool. You don’t find the electricity company deciding to turn of the power to your home because you’ve decide to look at some naked women now do you? Why then should Cisco get to decide to do the same if that is something you chose to do? (Note I’m not advocating pornography here at all – just commenting on the potential things that can get you banned)
You need to be ever mindful of what you use Cloud Services for and the potential impact on your business/life should changes occur beyond your control. As always, I say assess the impact before deciding to go to the cloud. Make sure it’s the right thing for YOU to do for YOUR business. Don’t just be a lemming and follow everyone else.
this is really nice
This is exactly the kind of behaviour that is always on the top of my list when I am providing the pro’s & con’s for cloud computing to my custonmers. Call me paranoid, but once you are in the cloud you really are at the mercy of the vendors.