Terms of Service; Didn’t Read is a site that gives you a very compact summary of the terms of your favorite websites and services. There are some surprises in there but Google isn’t one of them – we already know that they have a direct line to our brains.
It’s difficult to strike a balance between privacy and usefulness. Google is getting a lot of data from me but I get a lot of convenience in return. I could also set up a lot of the services on a server of my own, using for instance Kolab.
Benefit: privacy and control over my data.
Drawback: I suddenly become responsible for uptime, security, backups, and a lot of geeky challenges.
Note: Before you run off to install your own cloud solution, you’ll need to face another important decision: Which tool do you choose?
I have half a plan to set up a home server that runs either Kolab or something comparable, but as always, other real-life tasks are more important and/or urgent so this is a project for those “long winter nights.”