Who are you, and what makes up “you” as an individual? The scriptures tell us we are crafted by God, starting in the womb and shaped by events He puts in order, right down to believers springing to life in adoption as his children. The unbeliever would say that each person has his own perspective built up through experiences and beliefs and habits turning us into individuals. It’s these habits and events, preferences and tastes that companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and many others wish to use for advertising money.
Larry Ellison, CEO at Oracle, announced on Friday October 7 that his company was joining other providers in offering a cloud service. Called Oracle Public Cloud, he promised that the service would be able to operate with other companies’ software. If you’re not familiar with Oracle, they are notorious for “locking in” their customers so that they can only use Oracle products. It is significant that their public access cloud is going to open things up a little for people who use it. If you’re not familiar with what’s known as the Cloud, that’s okay; there are lots of people who aren’t sure what it is yet! The Cloud at this point is a way for you store photos, documents, music and other things, even letting other computers process things instead of your computer.
The cloud can be a great tool! Just look at what Facebook has accomplished with connecting people, and think of the things you can do with Google. The problem with the cloud, though, is an interesting one. The companies, like Facebook, Microsoft, or Apple, are asking me to hand over my life to them. The ideas, the events, habits, tastes all of it, and they are asking me to trust them. God has asked us to be good stewards, though, of His creation. Our lives are unique, and my life is between myself and the Lord. Everything that is personal, that He has given me to care for, that God has grown in me. These companies want me to hand this over to their care and trust that they will be responsible with what God has given me responsibility for.
For me, I don’t mind that they use data that I give them to sell me things on their sites. That’s simply good business, so long as I know how they’re using it. That’s good stewardship, I believe. Consider carefully what companies will do when uploading pictures and writing statuses and sending emails. For myself, I try to keep a copy on my own computer of everything. This is so that if I ever lose control or access on Facebook, or Gmail, or any other service, I can still be responsible with who I am before the Lord. I can certainly improve in this area, but it’s what I believe.
Maybe Larry Ellison, or the kid who runs Facebook, or Sergey Brin at Google will take good care of things. Just remember the God who gave you these things to store in the Cloud when you trust them.
|