Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has doubts about cloud computing

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

/ James Martin/CNET

(CBS News) Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has major reservations about cloud computing.

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Wozniak made an appearance Saturday at a performance of the one-man show "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" in Washington, the AFP reports. After the performance, Wozniak joined monologist Mike Daisey on stage to answer audience questions.

"I really worry about everything going to the cloud," Wozniak said. "I think it's going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years."

Wozniak is concerned about the end-user losing control over files and software that is stored in the cloud, arguing that users must sign over their rights to access the service.

"I want to feel that I own things," Wozniak said and emphasized that "the more we transfer everything onto the web, onto the cloud, the less we're going to have control over it."

Wozniak's concerns coincide with technology journalist Mat Honan's claims that a loophole in AppleCare allowed hackers to breach his iCloud account, causing a chain of events that lead to a remote wipe of his iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.

Wozniak co-founded Apple with the late Steve Jobs in 1976 and still holds shares in the company.

[stevenrogers123]

Thanks for the info. I bet they could really use some <a href="http://www.usacsi.org">personal security protection in san jose, ca</a>. Seriously, So Cal is somewhat dangerous, especially East LA and the rest of the city. However, east LA is notorious for being a bad area.

[Kimbakat]

I AGREE TOTALLY. We've already had a disaster with contacts-MAJOR..we had a major screw up get totally synced instantaenously in every device. The only thing you can restore from.. (Ha...don't make me laugh..as if restoring is a double-click action) is from a Time Machine backup...and then following a 20 Step process and about 2 hours of manual restructuring...to restore your Address book...CLOUD means NO BACKUP ANYWHERE. Once devices sync the damage..the damage is done everywhere. I don't trust it...and do I really need everything to sync instantaneously. I mean my home computer doesn't need to know whats on my phone...if I'm out. I can come home and manually sync it. I miss MobileMe...and the individual control of syncing each device..

[jvelaskoo]

there always be people that will not upload their data, at most some pictures to share but not much hard disks are cheap. you'll have movies and music online and books but personal info is another story

western digital makes cheap hard drives anyone can buy and the demand for external hard disks is enormous and shows no signs of slowing on he contrary it keeps going up:

this article about western digital explains it: http://investing.kuchita.com/2012/07/27/western-digital-yet-some-some-more-thoughts/

[barbaram99]

I would rather have my stuff on my PCs..I don 't want my stuff on a cloud..nope..

[yarnplay]

Sorry Expert, first learn how to proofread. Second, the Cloud is a 360 return to mainframe concept processing, everything in a central source nothing at the endpoint, which would make it a return to the past. Mainframe seemed unlimited if you could buy the redundancy and supercomputers. Third, the highest level of protection in the Cloud is only offered to those that pay premium rates. Ask the smaller users of Amazon after the crash how much of their data was returned. Fourth, nothing is limitless, the bigger users will get the priority, so the newby business will be bottom of the barrel and out gunned unless they pay the big bills upfront. Fifth, you did say that only the common functions should go to the Cloud and core should stay behind? But common functions can be supported by cheap bundled packages which are a one-time expense. I suspect you're not a billionaire.

[HubertWembley]

Of course, none of this 'cloud' stuff is actually truly new: the terminology is different but this is all 1960s retro mainframe-terminal deja vu. Back then, systems admins nannied users to death, often with the best of intentions. I'd know, I was in that mix. (Yup, I'm an old dude!) Woz knows what he's talking about: don't fall for all the cloud techno-hype and chic new buzzword blitz - the 'cloud' will nanny you to death too! What is the so-called cloud really about? It's about control! You get less and they get more. So they can make a buck off what you produce on your end of things. So they can target you: to sell you soap or whatever, to mine your data for whatever end they so choose. In the end, your ability to choose will evaporate as centralized computing gets more onerous and more annoying. Last but not least, security will amount to them saying "you trust us, don't you?" Well? Don't you? Trust us. Yeah. Right.

Me, I'd rather retain control over my own code, my own articles, my own pics, my own movies....

[yarnplay]

Ah, Herbert you are not alone in this perception. And those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Mikee3020 seems to be drinking the Kool-aid.

[hypnotoad72]

+1 to both you and yarnplay

[HubertWembley]

Of course, none of this 'cloud' stuff is actually truly new: the terminology is different but this is all 1960s retro mainframe-terminal deja vu. Back then, systems admins nannied users to death, often with the best of intentions. I'd know, I was in that mix. (Yup, I'm an old dude!) Woz knows what he's talking about: don't fall for all the cloud techno-hype and chic new buzzword blitz - the 'cloud' will nanny you to death too! What is the so-called cloud really about? It's about control! You get less and they get more. So they can make a buck off what you produce on your end of things. So they can target you: to sell you soap or whatever, to mine your data for whatever end they so choose. In the end, your ability to choose will evaporate as centralized computing gets more onerous and more annoying. Last but not least, security will amount to them saying "you trust us, don't you?" Well? Don't you? Trust us. Yeah. Right.

Me, I'd rather retain control over my own code, my own articles, my own pics, my own movies....

[andacar]

I don't think I'm quite as old, but I cut my teeth on an Amdhal 470 back in high school in the late 70s. I agree with you and others here that this whole NIFTY! NEW! INNOVATIVE! Cloud Computing thing sounds very familiar. The computer was this huge mysterious mass of machinery in a sealed room that only the high priests could enter. My data was there at the whim of the system administrator, who ruled all with an iron fist. Now the Cloud Computing gurus are proposing that we forget about over 30 years of computing progress and turn our PCs into dumb terminals, with our data "out there" somewhere. But your stuff will be safe with us. Really. We promise.

[andacar]

The Woz always made a lot more sense to me than Jobs ever did. There is no way I am going to put my irreplacable stuff, my art, my family photos, my projects, on the cloud. Remember the slogan for Westworld? "Put your stuff up on the Cloud, where nothing can go wrong... (click) wrong... (click) wrong... (click)"

[hypnotoad72]

Seconded, thirded, etc. The Woz has always been a decent, sensible, thoughtful, and respectable person. (I don't always agree with everyone, but comparing Wozniak with Jobs, Wozniak has always been the more... upstanding citizen.)

That and the terms of service policies for many cloud services - if the provider takes a royalty-free copy of what I do, its size allows it to exploit my property long before I could profit from it. "Redistribution of wealth" in a more subtle paradigm because most people, when told about the details, don't seem to care about that, or the domino effect it has on other tangential fun-time issues...

[amurguz]

As one of the many qualified Computer Network Engineers at Cisco Systems in San Jose, Ca, we have had, as a group, many conversations of similar veins amounting to the same concerns. What is worse, is that when, not if, the network crashes (and they all crash) the ability of anyone to get anything done will be so limited by the lack of cloud devices. This will be simply because they rely on a far flung server, rather then themselves, for their ability to perform anything useful. I am reminded of when the BlackBerry network went down for several days last year, and the handheld devices that allow access to the cloud, we good for doorstops; and not much else. Technology is a great thing, to a point, and cloud computing is past the point.

[rider1956]

Sounds like we are setting up for a cylon attack ... there will never be enough firewalls and then you add the lawyers.