The Future of the Internet & Entertainment: Flickr
I recently received an email from Flickr that my "Pro" account is about to expire. I'm left in a quandry as to whether or not to renew. And the complications have nothing to do with the quality or features, but rather bigger philosophical implications.
My immediate concern is Yahoo's (and AOL, MSN, and to a lesser extent, Google) lack of respect for the user, whether giving up user data to the US Government, or assisting China in the arrest & imprisonment of dissidents. These are issues where it is becoming increasingly difficult to yield.
Secondly is the notion of living online - storing the digitized portions of your life, entrusted to people you'll never see, on servers you'll never touch. The legal system, & particularly the fourth ammendment, are poorly suited for coping with remote storage & webapps (ex. Gmail, Gdrive, Flickr, etc.). How do I know my stuff is safe, that I am "secure in my papers"?
