Project 03 Response

• What trade-offs are you making when using the cloud? Have you consciously evaluated these trade-offs? What is your justification?

When using the cloud the trade-off you are making is really just convenience for privacy/confidentiality. As I found, setting up your own GitLab instance takes maybe a total of 6minutes of actual work, but you have to have a computer running one of the supported OS's if you want to make it an easy process because installation from source did not look too simple (for a CS major, for a average joe would be a hassle). In the scenario of running your own host/server you have to pay for the host computer, maintain any updates, do your own troubleshooting on server errors, do all configuration and management of the host on your own. For some people this may sound like a fun and easy task, but for others it may be too much so they will default to the cloud services. Cloud services will manage everything for you, make sure you are able to reach the service 24/7/365 unless something goes terribly wrong (cough AWS cough). They take away the work of managing the service so you can just enjoy its uses, but that could come at the cost of cloud services being bigger targets for hacking than your personal computer would be. If you are storing your data in a 3rd party cloud then you are giving up your ability to protect data yourself as well as the possibility of companies selling your data. I never thought about these things when considering whether to use a cloud service because the convenience of it is really all i'm looking for. 

• Is it ever worth it to manage your own private cloud services? Do you envision a future where you may use your own services rather than third party ones?

I don't think I will ever be a person that manages my own private cloud service as my primary way of storing data. I want to create my own private cloud storage server just for fun and to see if i can, but i'll still probably primarily use dropbox, google drive etc, because I believe the experience would be better through them as well as having mobile apps that are easy to use. I don't envision myself using a private cloud, i'd be the opposite and use any 3rd party cloud service that has a great mobile app UI and then i'd ditch my computer all together for anything other than coding....maybe even that. 

• Do you have the moral standing to complain about encrouchment on your privacy when you consciously give away your information to third party services?

Yes. You tell your friends your secrets and you don't expect them to give them out or use them for personal gain. Just like you give your cloud service your personal data and should expect them to not give it out or use it for personal gain.