In July 2009, Google also announced the release of a new upcoming operating system, Chrome OS. Chrome is also the name of the Web browser that Google introduced back in September 2008. Google’s ambition, reflected in the usee of the name Chrome for all its new products, is to create an operating system that is indistinguishable from the browser. In Web jargon, in fact, “chrome” refers to the graphic framework of a navigation browser: the address bar, the “Back” button, the bookmarks, the search box.
Google’s new operating system is a clouding system. This means that it will do away with the normal files, directories, and applications running on the user’s computer. Instead, Chrome OS will function on Google’s cloud computing infrastructure: applications will be delivered over the internet and your files saved in your personal clouding space.
Chrome OS’ cloud computing system represents a radical new direction for personal computing. Today’s major operating systems (Windows, Mac OS, and Linux) are all based on the workstation model, introduced in the 1980s. They essentially run on hardware, storing all the programs selected by the user and the data and files created through those programs on the user’s hard drive.
Chrome OS should take up less than a gigabyte of your computer’s hard drive, and the operating system will boot in seconds. It won’t have a “Start” button: you will essentially access the system through the Google home page, where you will be able to include links to your favourite Internet applications. After you login to Chrome OS with your Google username and password, Google Docs will be there to let you edit and store documents, and Gmail will take care of your e-mail.
The idea of cloud computing applied to personal computing has evolved with increasing popularity of applications like Facebook, Gmail, and YouTube. When you use these applications, your data is not stored in your computer, instead, the application is provided to you over the internet and the data generated via that application is stored in the provider’s data center - it is “in the cloud”. Data is only copied to your computer’s cache memory to allow the user to access it and view it.
Google Chrome OS will use your computer’s hard drive as a cache, so you will be able to work offline for some periods of time. However if for any reason your computer is malfunctioning, for example it is corrupted by a virus, you will not lose any work since your data is stored in the cloud.
This system is incredibly appealing: all things considered, it could be the simplest, fastest, and safest environment for personal computing. Pure bliss for those of you who, like myself, are regularly working on files on different computers and therefore hanging on for dear life to a USB stick with the constant terror of losing the latest piece of work.
Cloud computing sounds like heaven but there is a catch: it also makes Google the gatekeeper of your personal information.
Imagine this: you will no longer be storing your personal information on your own hard drive, it will be instead stored in Google’s servers with no other protection than a user name and password.
You will no longer have to worry about storing, managing, or backing up your personal data. But this also means that Google, a company that makes its profit by exploiting user data to sell targeted advertising solutions to its advertising customers, could have access to a richness of data that will make its online advertising business more profitable than ever.
Furthermore, what assurance will be offered to the user as to the existence of valid protections against the possibility that Google’s data bank might get hacked, leaked, or shared with public or private organizations?
Google may promise absolute privacy, but it is well known that internet companies have a history of changing privacy policies to their own advantage, then backing up a bit when customers complain, but still progressively opening more and more doors to personal data access and gathering.
Today you can still run applications locally, and keep your data unaccessible on your computer. In the future, if you want to benefit from the advantages of cloud computing, you may need to make a tough choice between your privacy and your convenience.
Smitten how we all will be with the benefits of cloud computing, my guess is that privacy concerns will be put in a backburner for the great part. Then some more or less dramatic leaking accident will occur and we will all be reminded of the privacy we have given up.
Stefania Lucchetti
Author, Speaker
www.stefanialucchetti.com
