iCloud musings

[Anastasius]

Leaving aside the question of 'security' and which I have no issue with, I'm not sure about the actual underlying mechanics of iCloud. I have two Apple devices that conceivably can connect to iCloud - an iMac and an iPod. I've always had a spurious request at login to sign in to iCloud and, although I enter the correct password, the login keeps coming back. Until I say Cancel. However I am connected to iCloud and so this login issue is really a 'Mmmmm...what's going on here but I'm not really bothered' issue.

After a restart this morning I had an idle moment (never a good idea) and started playing around with iCloud turning on various options to see what, if any, information was 'shared' or 'common' to both devices by virtue of iCloud. One of these 'tests' involved turning on Safari in iCloud and, sure enough, my Bookmarks from my iMac were visible on my iPod. Not too sure whether the iPod was seeing these in iCloud or if it had a local copy but at this point in time parked that line of enquiry.

Having played around for a while and coming to the conclusion that for me iCloud is just one big yawn, I started to turn off items in iCloud on the iMac and it was at this point that things started to take a definitely worrisome turn. iCloud gives you warning messages which are very binary and essentially seem to suggest that you either carry on using iCloud or you delete the items from your iMac which seems a bit like blackmail to me. It begs the question as to which device is in charge here. I get the distinct impression that iCloud assumes total authority over things like bookmarks on my iMac and that I do not like.

I liked it even less when, after hitting one of the options...can't remember which..I discovered that all my bookmarks in Safari on my iMac that I had recently painstakingly created had gone. Lost. Safari bookmarks seemed to be back where they were several months ago.

At this point I admitted defeat, determined never to use iCloud again and did a complete restore on the iMac from my SuperDuper backup.

[french frank]

I've often mused whether it's worth finding out what iCloud means

[Flay]

I've often mused whether it's worth finding out what iCloud means

Does that mean you do or don't have your head in the clouds?

[french frank]

Does that mean you do or don't have your head in the clouds?

Definitely not in the iCloud!

[Dave2002]

At this point I admitted defeat, determined never to use iCloud again and did a complete restore on the iMac from my SuperDuper backup.

Mmmm. I thought you were the one who seemed to advocate the use of clouds - including iCloud. I avoid these things like the plague, unless I have some idea of what they do. I have used Google Drive in the past, and at the time thought it was benign enough and I could control it. Now I'm less sure, but I'm fairly certain I have no idea what Apple/iCloud are doing. In the limit it's almost impossible to be sure what any piece of software or system "really" does, but I've seen enough of iCloud to be very unsure of what it does, why and when. I really don't want to have any/all of my data splattered about on external sites, unless I have a very good idea of what the data is, and why it might be stored elsewhere. Otherwise I don't want it. Apple/iCloud appears to have a mind of its own. Perhaps it's a good thing I find it confusing, as now I'm very determined not to use it. If it appeared to be better I might be lured into situations I'd really rather not have to deal with.

[Anastasius]

Mmmm. I thought you were the one who seemed to advocate the use of clouds - including iCloud. I avoid these things like the plague, unless I have some idea of what they do. I have used Google Drive in the past, and at the time thought it was benign enough and I could control it. Now I'm less sure, but I'm fairly certain I have no idea what Apple/iCloud are doing. In the limit it's almost impossible to be sure what any piece of software or system "really" does, but I've seen enough of iCloud to be very unsure of what it does, why and when. I really don't want to have any/all of my data splattered about on external sites, unless I have a very good idea of what the data is, and why it might be stored elsewhere. Otherwise I don't want it. Apple/iCloud appears to have a mind of its own. Perhaps it's a good thing I find it confusing, as now I'm very determined not to use it. If it appeared to be better I might be lured into situations I'd really rather not have to deal with.

No, not at an advocate per se but an advocate for a pragmatic approach to some people's misguided mania regarding 'them' monitoring our data in the cloud.