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Comment by joseflavio | Hacker News Reader

I agree with you that today there is absolutely no way, but in the last 5 years the internet changed a lot. Several Europeans countries are subsidizing the optical fiber infrastructure, so the bandwidth will not be problem. To solve the complexity issue, I think the solution could be a of "home server" or "home box", I guess it will could be even provided by your ISP (each day these home boxes come with more capabilities).

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I don't think that bandwidth is the problem. Technical knowledge is the problem. See, someone (AAPL) designs a beautiful box that does what you want (call it Time Capsule) and all of a sudden, all that changes is the attack vector: The NSA/BND/... does not require the cloud provider to hand over the data, they just require a data collection interface on the box. Or a sync protocol that leaks or a master key since they're sniffing all internet traffic anyways. All you're doing is playing a game of whack a mole. What's required is a fundamental change in how secret services are monitored and bound by law and that's not something technology can do.

Apple is clearly the wrong choice, then. Go with a vendor that allows people to own their own equipment, and not one that installs a data collection interface on it.

>sync protocol that leaks

Que? The sync protocol had better be open, or it's worthless.

Apple is not the problem. The (horribly proprietary) iCloud is just Apple's solution to the fundamental problem of people collecting data but not being able to manage it.

The article calls out smart devices. I've fantasized about having smart devices of my own, but in my fantasies they answer to me and collect data into my systems. Which means I need to learn a bit of embedded programming and some electrical engineering to build my own, after I've learned how to set up my own servers. I don't see this as viable for normal consumers.

Even I don't manage all of my own information. I switched to Gmail because I just can't keep up with spammers. I have a life.

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