NSA: Please Turn off the Lights When You Leave. Nothing to See Here.

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz shows how the general public can take action to truly protect their privacy using GnuPG with Evolution email. Read the details.

Mailvelope for Chrome: PGP Encrypted Email Made Easy

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz officially endorses what he deems is a truly secure, easy to use PGP email encryption program. Read the details.

Step off Microsoft's License Treadmill to FOSS Linux

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz reminds CIOs that XP Desktops destined for MS end of life support can be reprovisioned with FOSS Linux to run like brand new. Read how.

Bitcoin is NOT Money -- it's a Commodity

Linux Advocate shares news that the U.S. Treasury will treat Bitcoin as a Commodity 'Investment'. Read the details.

Google Drive Gets a Failing Grade on Privacy Protection

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz puts out a public service privacy warning. Google Drive gets a failing grade on protecting your privacy.

Email: A Fundamentally Broken System

Email needs an overhaul. Privacy must be integrated.

Opinion

Cookie Cutter Distros Don't Cut It

Opinion

The 'Linux Inside' Stigma - It's real and it's a problem.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Turn a Deaf Ear

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz reminds readers of a long ago failed petition by Mathematician Prof. Donald Knuth for stopping issuance of Software Patents.

Showing posts with label Google Drive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Drive. Show all posts

Monday, December 1, 2014

MegaSync Your Cloud Data for True Internet Privacy

MegaSync Client for Linux with GNOME Nautilus 'Drag Drop' Support shown on my Fedora 21 Workstation Desktop

Strong Encryption is the only choice to secure the Public's Internet Privacy against unwarranted access.

I really don't know how to make that message any more clear.

You see, ISPs are going to 'feather their own nests' as we bear witness to changing Terms of Service with Google and most recently at Facebook.

Personally, I could not care less about their Terms of Service.

Because, as far as I am concerned, anything put on their sites becomes theirs.  Period.  They can claim otherwise.  It doesn't matter.

Google doesn't want to encrypt your Gmail, or Drive.  Why?  Because 'they claim' it's parsed for Advertising revenue purposes.  Does that seem legitimate to you?

Let me lay it bare for you.

The truth of the matter and what Google won't say is, they profit also from intelligence gathering by parsing keyword triggers that get forwarded to domestic and foreign governmental agencies. That is not Transparency. No, it is outright lying by omission.

Your Gmail and Drive get scrutinized every time you use it.

I've written on how to manage your Gmail using OpenPGP Encrypted Evolution Email on Linux Advocates.

The technique I illustrated renders any third-party's ability to parse clear text useless.

As for Google Drive?  Avoid it 'like the plague'.  MegaSync employs 'zero knowledge' end-to-end encryption and gives 50GB of free space by default.

Mega's strong encryption makes your personal folders and files just streams of block data totally unintelligible, so that Mega doesn't know what is getting stored.

You may recall, the take down of Kim Dot Com's MegaUpload by the U.S. Government.  Kim Dot Com said it was "a death sentence without a trial".

Mega with MegaSync client changes all that.

Now, Mega can reliably claim what is legally termed 'plausible deniability' for what clients store on their site, by virtue of how this method of encryption works.

And, isn't that the way it should have been all along?  Really.  It's nobody's business what a law abiding Netizen stores on the Internet.  It's personal.  It's private.  And Mega fills this gaping unmet need.

In the final analysis, if the government wants to know what is stored in the cloud of an account holder, they need to take out a search warrant issued by a Judge.  Then and only then, should a 'Good Netizen' comply by unlocking their encrypted files.

With MegaSync strong encryption, nobody can see your data without your expressed consent.

MegaSync your cloud data for true Internet Privacy.

-- Dietrich

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The Puzzling Case of Google Chromebook Packaged Apps

by Dietrich Schmitz

Ah, Google Chrome packaged applications.  I see.  What?!

So maybe you are as confused as I am.  Apparently, Google is, once again, on the move not sitting still, not complacent, innovating as they are wont to do and on Internet Time.

That means, a frenetic pace, which hasn't let up continues with more announcements that makes one's head spin.

The most recent is packages.  Now, you are wondering, for what are packages needed?

After all, the Chromebook's raison d'etre has been that you don't need to install any software right?

Wrong.  That appears to be changing.  And, looking just this past weekend at a Walmart $199 Acer C710 in-store display, I thought, what is a Chromebook with 1TB of disk space going to be used for?

Acer C710 Chromebook sold in U.S. Walmart stores
[Update: It was pointed out on reddit that if one drills down on the website SKU shown above and behind in 'specifications', it shows 16GB SSD; still there are other SKUs being sold with large local hard drives, so the question stands: why a large HDD?]

It also includes a blue-ray drive which will keep the movie industry happy.

But, I digress.  Packages.  What are they all about?  Well, it seems that Google Chrome is now offering packaged Apps for ChromeOS.  At least they're available to those using the developer channel for now.  And only show if you use Windows or Chromebook.  That explains me not noticing.  I usually skim through the Chrome Store once a week with my drag-net looking for trends.  The announcement came quietly.  I missed it.  I suppose because there have been so many from Google, it becomes part of the ambient Internet background noise level.

I really don't know what this portends for the future of Chromebook.  I suppose that the proof is in the pudding and those packaged Apps have yet to materialize in any major way.

Let's call it an escape hatch for Google.  They won't or can't (or both) encrypt your data on Google Drive, but you sure can keep your data safe on a local drive--far better than in the Cloud (cough NSA).  That might allay potential buyer concerns.  Local storage good.  Cloud bad.

And back to school is only a blink of an eye away in August, so, there is a yet unrealized explosion of sales to be exploited from the newest Walmart and Staples distribution channels.

The potential for sales is huge at Walmart and of course Google knows that.  And, the potential for students to adopt Chromebook is also good, but is it good enough for many who still are wanting to install apps locally?  That is Google's hedge with packages.  Really, if Google made up their mind, they could simply package ChromeOS as a free-standing Linux Distribution.  They just have to decide to do it.  For now, you get ChromeOS only on Chromebook.

Packages is not going to fly if there aren't Apps--good ones.  That will tell the tale in the long run.

-- Dietrich
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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Google Drive Gets Failing Grade on Privacy Protection

by Dietrich Schmitz

Never mind that Google reneged on their promise to bring a native Google Drive Client to Linux.  It really doesn't matter to me at this point.  We have much bigger fish to fry.

You see, Google is as much complicit as any other ISP in cooperating with our beloved U.S. government in handing over your private data without a warrant.  The government waltzes in simply cherry picks whatever they are looking for unimpeded.

This is flouting our privacy rights and, with each successive day, more and more of our constitutional rights are being dismantled in the name of fighting terrorism.

"At what point do we stop taking away our rights?", is an open question everyone should be thinking about.  Because, the latest news regarding disclosure of the NSA's Prism project confirms just how far 'out of hand' things have progressed with the overreach by our government into our private affairs.  Seeing such news, one wonders where we will be in five years.  I fear the erosion of our rights will continue unless these projects are abandoned.

Your only recourse in fighting back to hold off these intrusions?:




Folks, I cannot stress this enough.  There is no other option if you plan on storing any personal data on the Internet other than encryption to keep prying eyes from reading it.

And, I feel obligated to tell you that NONE of your data stored in Gmail or Google Drive is encrypted.

In fact, Google will not offer an encryption service in the interest of protecting your privacy.  Why?  Because, it will render their 'parsers' useless in parsing through your data for advertising purposes, their main 'cash cow'.

This stands as being a gross conflict of interests and Google has overtly chosen to make profit a higher priority than protecting your privacy.

I give Google a FAIL on their moral ethics and stance on privacy.  

The bottom line?: Don't use Google Drive or Gmail if you don't want your data seen by third parties.  

-- Dietrich
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