Backing Up into the iCloud

Although I don’t use my smart phone nearly as much as do most people, I do dread the thought that one day I’ll drop my phone and break it, or something like that. Of course, buying one is relatively easy, but then one must go through the process of loading in all of the photos, files, apps and whatnots that that have accumulated in there over the years.

The simple answer is to back-up all of the information, and, in the case of an iPhone, which is what I have, the automatically given solution is to back-up everything into the Cloud  or, more precisely, the iCloud.

Well, I remember speaking with some college students a few years ago about “The Cloud” and I asked them who owns it.

“Nobody does”, they answered.

“Well, where is it”. I asked.

“It isn’t anywhere”, they answered, “it’s the cloud”.

At this point I realized that the real cloud was between their ears. They actually seemed to believe that their data back-up was in some sort of vaporous, or possibly even spiritual realm in which no human beings exist and which was untouchable to anyone but themselves.

Oh, better yet!  It was as if they imagine it to be like the Luminiferous Aether of years back. You know, that vaporous substance which was once believed to permeate the universe and make possible the transmission of light. You remember learning about that, don’t you? You don’t?  Well, forget about it, you can look it up later.

My point is that I don’t want to trust my smart phone contents with anybody, because if somebody has it, someone else can hack it.

Not that anyone would find anything of value there, it’s just the principle of the matter. I mean, going over my iPhone would be as boring as reading about the Objectivist Philosophy of Ayn Rand. (More on her some other time.)

I want to make it clear that I don’t mean to pick on Apple alone. All of those digital data, continuous communication, and smelling of silicon companies are like that. It’s as if they are telling us:

    “We at (company of your choice) respect your privacy as an individual and are determined to keep you and your loved ones safe from those who might wish to probe into your financial and personal affairs. So, to achieve the security you seek, leave a copy with us”.

Got it? The best way to keep things secret is to give it to them, and they’ll keep it secret!   Hmmmm.

As you might have guessed by now, I do have an idea which, truth to tell, I got back when I bought my last iPhone.

When I bought it, I was amazed that by simply placing one phone on top of the other, they were somehow able to copy all of the stored information from my old phone onto my new phone. Amazing!

So, why not simply sell us external hard drives like that and let us make as many back-ups as we choose?

I’m surprised that a device like this hasn’t come out many years ago. Yet, I just looked on the internet, and no such thing could be found.

C’mon Apple, you can do it! 

Or, at the very least….it’s something to think about.