Re: [tlug] RMS is at it again...again

[Edward Middleton <emiddleton@example.com>]

Curt Sampson wrote:
> On 2008-10-03 15:04 +0900 (Fri), Edward Middleton wrote:
>   
>> [Locking you out of your data] can be easily mitigated by duplicating
>> your data.
>>     
>
> Whether this is "easily" mitigated or not depends on two things: whether
> you can easily get a copy of your data, and whether this is in a form
> you can easily use elsewhere.
>
> For the first, a simple "export" option may not be so great if you're
> forced to download several hundred megabytes of data every time you
> want to back it up, or if you have to download thousands of items
> individually.
>
> For the second, the data aren't very useful if you don't have another
> program in which you can load them that will then do the job for which
> you were using the service provider.
>   

Well you had the information before you input it into the system.  Yes
it might be hard to get it back once you have input it, if it has become
the only source of the data, but that is ultimately a choice you have made.

>> I don't know that there is anything that can effectively combat
>> [modifing your data to misrepresent the situation], which basically
>> leaves...
>>     
>
> Sure, there is. You can keep local copies of the data and do
> comparisons. I doubt that this cheap, though.
>   

And then what?  People got your information from the SNS, not your
backup, the onus is on you to prove that your backup is the
authoritative source.

> With your "basically leaves..." comment, it sort of sounded as if being
> able to do nothing about a problem made it not a problem, though I'm
> sure you didn't mean it that way.
>   

The point was that this is a problem with the use of any public forum,
including talking to reporters and not specific to SNS or Google Talk
like services.

Edward