HPC in the Cloud: Signing Away Your Rights with Google Chrome

Dedicated to covering high-end cloud computing
in science, industry and the datacenter

Translation Disclaimer

Subscribe | Sign In

Tabor Communications
Corporate Video

Top News from Leading HPC in the Cloud Solution Providers

Blog: The Essence of 'On-Demand'

September 03, 2008

Signing Away Your Rights with Google Chrome

People have referred to the Google Chrome browser as a cloud operating system, and that characterization seems accurate. For personal users running advanced Web apps and enterprise users accessing (or hoping to access) cloud services alike, this a promising proposition, no doubt. However, it's not all roses: Google's quest to store your personal data -- and even to own content transmitted via Chrome -- is a little troubling to me. In fact, these concerns mirror those skeptics are asking about cloud computing, in general.

The Pros

It's minimalist. For those of us who hate working with aggressive, in-your-face interfaces, Chrome is the answer.In fact, it doesn't even include the seemingly ubiquitous Windows menu bar.

It's app-focused. Google even built V8, described by the company as "a more powerful JavaScript engine, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers." As the SaaS ecosystem continues to expand, a browser that maximizes performance will be a hot commodity.

It's cloud computing-ready. Not only does V8 promise better performance for Java-based cloud applications, but each tab opens in a "sandbox" model. This means that if a site or application crashes Tab A, Tab B (ostensibly running on its own VM) is not affected. So, if I'm taking a break from porting an application to EC2 or GoGrid (or doing any other cloud-based tasks) to do some nefarious Web surfing in another tab, my legitimate work won't be for naught when the latter activity inevitably causes a browser freeze. This, in fact, is the very promise of multi-tenanted cloud architectures: your applications and your VMs are isolated from other users', and whatever they're doing won't affect you at all.

The combination of sandbox tabs and better application performance is a great start if Google intends for Chrome to be the OS when, as some experts predict, all computing will be done via the Web.

The Cons

It's new-fangled. Let's be honest: we get used to things looking and functioning in certain ways, and change can be scary. For the time being, I think I'll stick to Firefox and utilize Google's suite of Web services via that browser.

It's advertising-focused. I keep my e-mails and my Web searches pretty tame, so I'm willing to put up with the targeted advertising (which I barely ever even notice) with GMail and Google Search. When it comes to my browser, however, I'm a little less welcoming of targeted advertising. Being a member of the publishing world, I understand that advertising pays the bills, but that doesn't mean I want Google using, in any way, personal data that I did not specifically send across a Google service. The browser always has been a relatively neutral party in the Web experience, but no amount of Web history deletions will erase the stockpiles of personal data that Google has stored.

As Google itself says:

17.1 Some of the Services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements may be targeted to the content of information stored on the Services, queries made through the Services or other information.

17.2 The manner, mode and extent of advertising by Google on the Services are subject to change without specific notice to you.

17.3 In consideration for Google granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Google may place such advertising on the Services.

Google wants your intellectual property. Seriously. Here's the clause:

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

Yes, you still retain your rights, but Google also has free reign to do whatever it wishes with any content you submit, post or display on or through Chrome. I'll spare you an intellectual property lecture, but what this means is Google has rights over your copyrighted material that go against pretty much every facet of IP law. Save for the limited "fair use" universe, other parties simply do not have the right, without consent (and, often, a royalty agreement), to use your copyrighted material for their commercial gain. Unless, of course, you sign that right away ...

One of the main concerns about cloud computing is that your data is being processed and, possibly, stored on someone else's infrastructures. Users have to trust that the third party will not only keep that data safe from intruders, but also that the service provider will not access and use the data for its own purposes. Yes, these services likely have agreements stating they will do no such thing, but even planting the seed of such practices could make leery enterprises head right back for their own servers. To the extent Chrome is considered a "cloud operating system," the notion of Google claiming rights over your content could cast a shadow over the whole universe, especially App Engine. And what if you use Chrome to do proprietary work in other cloud services? Can Google somehow assert rights over that content?

I know Google counts some smart lawyers among its ranks, but I sense some legal challenges on the horizon if this clause sticks around.

Posted by Derrick Harris - September 03, 2008 @ 2:09 PM, Pacific Daylight Time

RSS Feeds

Feeds by Topic

Feeds by Content Type

Subscribe to All Content

All

Derrick Harris

Derrick Harris is the Editor of On-Demand Enterprise

More Derrick Harris

Feature Articles

Avoiding Scientific Computing Bottlenecks in the Cloud

Frank Ding, engineering analysis & technical computing manager at Simpson Strong-Tie, discussed the advantages of utilizing the cloud for occasional scientific computing, identified the obstacles to doing so, and proposed workarounds to some of those obstacles.
Read more...

Overcoming the Cloud Security Barrier for Financial Services

The private industry least likely to adopt public cloud services for data storage are financial institutions. Holding the most sensitive and heavily-regulated of data types, personal financial information, banks and similar institutions are mostly moving towards private cloud services – and doing so at great cost.
Read more...

Research Roundup: Toward a More Efficient Cloud

In this week's hand-picked assortment, researchers explore the path to more energy-efficient cloud datacenters, investigate new frameworks and runtime environments that are compatible with Windows Azure, and design a uniﬁed programming model for diverse data-intensive cloud computing paradigms.
Read more...

Read more HPC in the Cloud features...

Short Takes

Running Computational Fluid Dynamics in the Cloud

May 16, 2013 | When it comes to cloud, long distances mean unacceptably high latencies. Researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany examined those latency issues of doing CFD modeling in the cloud by utilizing a common CFD and its utilization in HPC instance types including both CPU and GPU cores of Amazon EC2.
Read more...

In Support of Cloud-based Rendering

May 10, 2013 | Australian visual effects company, Animal Logic, is considering a move to the public cloud.
Read more...

Internet2 Awards Program Seeks Innovative Applications

May 10, 2013 | Program provides cash awards up to $10,000 for the best open-source end-user applications deployed on 100G network.
Read more...

HPC and the True Cost of Cloud

May 08, 2013 | For engineers looking to leverage high-performance computing, the accessibility of a cloud-based approach is a powerful draw, but there are costs that may not be readily apparent.
Read more...

Read more headlines...

Best Practices in Big Data Storage

05/10/2013 | Cleversafe, Cray, DDN, NetApp, & Panasas | From Wall Street to Hollywood, drug discovery to homeland security, companies and organizations of all sizes and stripes are coming face to face with the challenges – and opportunities – afforded by Big Data. Before anyone can utilize these extraordinary data repositories, however, they must first harness and manage their data stores, and do so utilizing technologies that underscore affordability, security, and scalability.

Exploring the Potential of Heterogeneous Computing

04/02/2012 | AMD | Developers today are just beginning to explore the potential of heterogeneous computing, but the potential for this new paradigm is huge. This brief article reviews how the technology might impact a range of application development areas, including client experiences and cloud-based data management. As platforms like OpenCL continue to evolve, the benefits of heterogeneous computing will become even more accessible. Use this quick article to jump-start your own thinking on heterogeneous computing.