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Conscious Computing

Data is the currency of the 21st century and Cloud Computing is the solution for the vast majority of companies – outsourcing the ‘technical stuff’ to Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet – the Big Five, who recently received this collective name. From a naïve perspective, it is all good and bright. Cost efficient, always maintaining uptime (or at least, that is what we all recall); having 99 problems but the IT infrastructure isn’t one of ‘em.

This brightly illustrated image is the reality of many if not most organizations in the westernized economy. The price we pay, our data, the obedience to standardized tech solutions, the lost uniqueness of in-house indie developed platforms and information systems. The price we pay, the risk of being a victim of a mass-compromise in case of a cyber-attack on the big five, our data being sold in case of a data leak by the big five. The price we pay as European citizens, giving away all of our personal data to the largest corporate organizations, none of which are established on European grounds. Now, it becomes a geopolitical matter.

What about data privacy? In the EU, we are so fortunate to have the GDPR – made in the EU. As the Big Five, why obey such a directive when paying a fine seems more lucrative than cutting back on handling European data of millions of citizens?

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Ah, cloud computing is all happening in the ‘clouds’, far away from me, so it couldn’t be harming anyone, right?

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The digital divide is contributing to inhumane dimensions to the global gap between the global north that outsources its environmental sins to the global south, where IT infrastructure deserts are the reason why local people are dying of thirst, dying of heat, dying of poverty.

The digital transformation of the global north does not create novel, intangible problems, rather it adds to existing problems that have been around since globalization. There is no need to point fingers at those who use (or are obliged due to employers’ decisions) of cloud computing or purchase Big Five products in general. However, I do see the strong need to raise awareness of topics like these. Fast fashion, meat consumption, individual private transport, taking commercial low-cost flights – members of our society know all too well about the effects they are contributing to with their choices (or at least I have a philanthropic perspective on it). Yet the debate on essentially digital humanism, digital justice and effects of digital solutions on humans needs to move to a more prominent stage in our society; it has been waded off to the tech experts for long enough. One does not necessarily need to have full technical expertise to understand that e.g. cloud computing does, even though being invisible to the end-user, is physically, drastically harming the environment and other humans.

Hopefully, some readers are at this point more conscious of their technological consumer choices. Trying to intentionally avoid purchasing products of the Big Five, again, those are Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet (where Meta, i.e. Facebook, Instagram, etc. belong to), can be more of a hassle than it may appear at first glance.

There is a high chance that the following scenario corresponds to your current setup:

You are reading this article on the internet, your standard browser is Google Chrome or Apple’s Safari. You have seen that this new article has been posted on social media via Instagram or Facebook. The end device you are reading this on is either a computer or phone. High chance that your computer’s operating system is Microsoft’s Windows or Apple’s MacOS, and your phone is either a Samsung or an iPhone. You work some office job, where the entire IT infrastructure depends on Microsoft’s Office 365 (that includes MS Outlooks, MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Teams) and Google Workspace (Google Calendar, etc.) and the data is stored in cloud solutions: AWS Amazon, MS OneDrive or Google Drive. If you are a student, your university has implemented Canvas as their main learning platform and also rely on Microsoft accounts with your university e-mail address. And finally, in your spare time you (at least occasionally) browse Amazon Prime for streaming movies and TV-shows, as a marketplace – or Facebook’s marketplace if you are looking for retro C2C buys.

If the above-described scenario applies to you, I certainly do not blame you. Also, telling someone to set up their own local cloud system because of the aforementioned risks and trade-ins, sounds as if it came from someone wearing a tinfoil hat. However, just like we as a society made such progress in topics like fast fashion, meat consumption, individual private transport, and commercial low-cost flights, I think there are tiny steps every conscious consumer can take without having huge technical expertise. The key to that is awareness of alternatives. And it would not be an article written by me, if I had not some recommendations in petto. I will recreate the same scenario as above, however providing some alternative solutions than the big five offer.

You are reading this article on the internet, your standard browser is DuckDuckGo or Ecosia. You have seen that this new article has been posted on social media via LinkedIn or you just checked regularly the newspaper’s website. The end device you are reading this on is either a computer or phone. There is a chance that your computer’s operating system is Linux, and your phone is a OnePlus. You work some office job, where the entire IT infrastructure has been in-house developed and the data is stored in cloud solutions: a locally-hosted network solution (NAS/RAID). If you are a student, your university has implemented their local and in-house developed information system as their main learning platform and have their domain-based account management with your university e-mail address. And finally, in your spare time you (at least occasionally) browse Netflix or Disney+ for streaming movies and TV shows, and as a marketplace you are using indie developed apps that facilitate local C2C trades such as Vinted or Wallapop in Switzerland and Willhaben.at in Austria.

Perhaps in the near future, this scenario does not sound like it is your own reality. Additionally, it does not even have to include every single change. Perhaps, after reading this article, you simply switch from Google browser to DuckDuckGo browser or you download a local marketplace app instead of using Amazon or Facebook marketplace. Perhaps you are not even doing that. But having read that far, perhaps you tell a friend and you start an easy-going discussion. Even then, my goal of this article will be achieved: raising the awareness and contributing to the discussion about conscious consumer decisions related to tech related products.

Jennifer-Marieclaire Sturlese
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