personal info "in the cloud" is it only me that's uncomfortable?
- Thread starter ShaggyKids
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- Dec 1, 2010
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Krazy, I understand what you're saying and I've asked myself the same question many times. A hair appt or similar isn't a big deal and in all honesty I really do not have such important appts that pretty much anyone and everyone could know and it wouldn't matter one diddly - probably much less to them than me
because my life isn't all that exciting - in fact it's pretty darn boring 
I have a hard time climbing out of my little corner of the world - I'm a real hermit, very private person and that's probably what makes me so leery about making this move. It amazes me that we are all warned severely to guard our social security numbers with our lives for example but yet many things we do we get asked for it. Heck, some states even use it for the person's driver's license number! How many people do we give our ss# to that could easily turn around and be using them to steal our identities and we all know that's a huge problem these days.
Just because Google knows so much about us doesn't mean we have to voluntarily feed it to them with a silver spoon, though. How do we know they're not harvesting our personal contacts and selling them to third parties to send us more junk mail or even more serious breaches of privacy for example? Are we just supposed to blindly believe them just because they may say they aren't? Just how much "Big Daddy is Watching" are we all supposed to just say is ok?
So, maybe I'm paranoid but on the other hand maybe I'm not.
I have a gmail account set up to use this phone but I do not have any contacts or calendar entries. Before my first sync I unchecked sync for my google account. Then using HTC sync only synced with outlook and the only email account that I have active on my TB is my verizon.net. One of the reasons I got this phone was because I could sync directly with outlook and bypass google. I am also coming from BB and I may be old school but do not like any of my info in the cloud.
No, not used it. I am coming off a Blackberry that syncs with Outlook. I never used Outlook for anything except my calendar and tasks. My email program is Thunderbird. But as I understand it, I now can no longer sync with Outlook unless I go through the Google calendar and tasks somehow
So Sync your Bolt with your Outlook Calendar. Google Calendar is just a neat way to access everything from anywhere.
Krazy, I understand what you're saying and I've asked myself the same question many times. A hair appt or similar isn't a big deal and in all honesty I really do not have such important appts that pretty much anyone and everyone could know and it wouldn't matter one diddly - probably much less to them than me
I have a hard time climbing out of my little corner of the world - I'm a real hermit, very private person and that's probably what makes me so leery about making this move. It amazes me that we are all warned severely to guard our social security numbers with our lives for example but yet many things we do we get asked for it. Heck, some states even use it for the person's driver's license number! How many people do we give our ss# to that could easily turn around and be using them to steal our identities and we all know that's a huge problem these days.
Just because Google knows so much about us doesn't mean we have to voluntarily feed it to them with a silver spoon, though. How do we know they're not harvesting our personal contacts and selling them to third parties to send us more junk mail or even more serious breaches of privacy for example? Are we just supposed to blindly believe them just because they may say they aren't? Just how much "Big Daddy is Watching" are we all supposed to just say is ok?
So, maybe I'm paranoid but on the other hand maybe I'm not.
Sorry, but I don't see the correlation between giving someone your SS# and putting a veterinarian appointment on your Google Calendar. I seriously doubt there's an evil Google employee who culls through the calendars looking to see what you're up to. You have more to worry about in the crazy ex-boyfriend (or girlfriend if you swing that way) stalkers than you do from Google, so change your password and drive on.
Or, just use your Outlook Calendar. I'm a privacy freak, but nobody said you have to sign up for Google at ALL to use the Bolt. (BEHIND YOU!!!)
The convenience is worth it. I don't use Google calendar because I use Exchange, but even if I did I'd have no problem with it. I have no secrets, especially on my calendar.
I can see where someone could have a problem with the google calendar and "cloud" usage.
I use google cal and when i put an appointment in and add all the information, someone could actually get the date/time/location of where i will be. It is a possibility of someone gaining access to that information from any computer with web access. If, however, that information is only on MY home/work computer and my phone (sync'd directly) there is much less of a chance of anyone getting that information.
I don't have issues with this myself, but i can definately see how someone else might have a major issue with their infomation being "out there".
I use google cal and when i put an appointment in and add all the information, someone could actually get the date/time/location of where i will be. It is a possibility of someone gaining access to that information from any computer with web access. If, however, that information is only on MY home/work computer and my phone (sync'd directly) there is much less of a chance of anyone getting that information.
I don't have issues with this myself, but i can definately see how someone else might have a major issue with their infomation being "out there".
- Dec 1, 2010
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Doesn't anyone remember the guy who released all that private stuff recently? I don't remember his name or what the service was at the moment but it made huge news headlines and I think he's being majorly sued. There is no way I'd blindly trust every single employee at Google or anywhere else for that matter. You've never heard of crooked cops or bank employees? There are bad apples everywhere and in every place of employment or darn close anyway.
So if you've been getting your hair done at the same place for the last 10 years, you still put the address in every time you set up an appointment?
No... but if it is a repeating appt, the information carries over for me.
And when i have an appointment that is for somewhere i have never been (which is often), i type the name of the place and it will "google" the address and place it in the appt for me, so that i can map the location. Very helpful...
It isn't necessarily about hair appts. I am a nurse and i use it to find medical facilities for appointments and such.
I must have missed that story, unless you're talking about Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder and that Private Bradley Manning kid who are both currently being held by the feds for different reasons. Manning is accused of giving Assange a bunch of data from Iraq of the SIPRNET (Network for transmitting info classified as "Secret" and "Confidential") and Assange (accused of rape in Sweden) released all the diplomatic cables while threatening to release a bunch of Bank of America crap.
Then you have Hackers Anonymous who released a bunch of emails which showed bad business practices and took down defense contractor HB Gary...and also released a few Bank of America emails...
More info might be helpful, but I am starting to think your fears are mislaid and driven by rumor more than fact. Of course, I could be wrong.
I completely understand where you're coming from but there is a point where you have to draw the line. You have to decide where that is.
Could someone at google release your personal information to the world? Maybe, I don't know. They may have safeguards where all your information stored on the cloud is encrypted. Actually I imagine that is the case.
Could someone hack into your personal computer at home and see that same information? Sure, but what is the motivation or likelyhood?
Could someone break into your house and steal your computer or hard drive and have all that same information? Yeah.
Could someone mug you and take your phone and have all your information? Yeah.
All these things are possible although not likely enough that I would spend much time worrying about them.
Not enough for me to give up the convenience of having everything backed up online so that if I get a new phone all I have to do is put in my email and my email, contacts and appointments are automatically synced to the new phone.
It's good to be careful, but don't be so careful that you're afraid to live your life.
If you were syncing your information to Google, you could simply change your Google account's password from any computer and your information would become inaccessible from your phone. There's one benefit of having Google's cloud sync services.
You must have a high-speed google calendar because I just tried it on mine and it doesn't add an address, or carry it over when I manually enter one, and there is no option to google the place. Now you can google the place, and copy/paste the address, but the calendar isn't going to do it for you.
If you would like a walkthru, PM me and i will tell you how as i don't want this to get off topic.
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- Dec 1, 2010
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I realize I might sound a bit paranoid and I most certainly am not someone a stalker would be likely to stalk, nor is my life so freaking important that someone is likely to use my information against me or anything else unsavory. I'm not trying to make it look like I am that important of a person. I'm not, I'm just me a regular person.
I was looking for input and I got it and I thank everyone who's replied. You all have good points and I am happy to learn that some of you understand and some even feel the same way. I tend to think women feel this way a bit more and maybe more often than men and I don't even think there's any particular reason I/we do.
Part of it is that I am a hermit so it's hard for me to share personal stuff no matter how mundane and uninteresting it may be to the rest of the world. Part of it is principal based in that I feel we do voluntarily give to much stuff to places like Google. I find it a bit ironic that there are so many safety warnings about protecting ourselves from hackers, identity thieves etc but yet a large majority of the online population has no qualms about giving Google just about anything but their first born child. I'd venture to say that if Google were up for it some of us WOULD give that to them, too! LOL! (I'll keep mine, thank you!)
I was looking for input and I got it and I thank everyone who's replied. You all have good points and I am happy to learn that some of you understand and some even feel the same way. I tend to think women feel this way a bit more and maybe more often than men and I don't even think there's any particular reason I/we do.
Part of it is that I am a hermit so it's hard for me to share personal stuff no matter how mundane and uninteresting it may be to the rest of the world. Part of it is principal based in that I feel we do voluntarily give to much stuff to places like Google. I find it a bit ironic that there are so many safety warnings about protecting ourselves from hackers, identity thieves etc but yet a large majority of the online population has no qualms about giving Google just about anything but their first born child. I'd venture to say that if Google were up for it some of us WOULD give that to them, too! LOL! (I'll keep mine, thank you!)
PMing you as this is definitely something I would like to see how to do. I'm a geek 99% of the time (it's my job) and I can't figure this one out? PM'd
Mybackup Pro will back to either card or cloud. And it works great. Just restored Inc to new TB. Took about 10 minutes and all data, apps, most settings and all home screens were created on new device. Huge time saver.
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