Cloud Computing Technology and the Impact of 'The Web Never Forgets'

This report evaluates the positive and negative impact of cloud computing technology on the fact that 'the web never forgets' and how it influences people's lives. It discusses scenarios in which cloud computing has a positive impact on people's lives, such as storing personal data for a long time and ubiquitous access. It also highlights the negative impact of cloud computing, such as embarrassing moments, revenge porn, failure to access data, dependence on the internet, and breach of privacy.

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Information Technology
The web never forgets

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................2
Cloud computing technology.......................................................................3
The Web Never Forgets...............................................................................3
Positive impact............................................................................................4
Negative impact..........................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................10

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Introduction
In today’s digital world, technology has a significant impact on people’s
life. The technological advancements are changing people’s lives by
making it easier for them to perform their day to day tasks. The impact of
technology on people’s lives is both positive and negative. The
technologies have assisted in connecting people from all across the globe
and create new business opportunities; however, they have increased
issues for individuals and organisations as well. The cloud computing
technology is a good example which has made people’s lives easier while
creating challenges for the same time. The technology enables individuals
and corporations to store their data and provide them ubiquitous access
to such data (Zissis and Lekkas, 2012). The key advantage of the
technology is that parties did not have to store their data on their devices
physically, and they can also access this data from all across the globe.
However, there are disadvantages as well such as data cannot be
accessed without an internet connection, vulnerability to cyber-attacks,
privacy issues, and others. One of the key issues with the internet is that
once something is published or leaked on the internet, then it becomes
almost impossible to remove it. It creates that issue that ‘the web never
forgets’ which adversely affects many people. This report will evaluate
both positive and negative impact of cloud computing on the fact that ‘the
web never forgets’ and how it influences people’s lives.

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Cloud computing technology
The cloud computing technology is defined as a shared pool of
configurable computer system resources which assist in delivering of
computing services which include databases, storage, software, servers,
intelligence, networking, and others. It is an effective method for
delivering information technology (IT) services in which resources are
retrieved from the internet through various tools and application rather
than directly connecting to the server (Dinh et al., 2013). It is an
alternative option of keeping the files in the local storage device or hard
drive and keeping it in cloud-based storage due to which it is possible to
access such files remotely. The data which is stored on the cloud is
accessible from everywhere based on which it becomes easier for
companies and individuals to share their data around the globe. The cloud
is classified into three categories which include public, private and hybrid
cloud. Generally, most individuals and corporations use public cloud
through their cloud service provider (CSP) which provides them access to
cloud storage by charging them certain amount for their usage (Arora,
Parashar and Transforming, 2013). The popularity of cloud computing is
growing worldwide and a large number of people relying on these services
to store their data and share it with others.
The Web Never Forgets
This is a term which thrown around a lot in recent years with the
popularity and ease of access to the internet. The growth in global
number of social media users has also increased this issue. Now small
things become “viral” or popular in just few days, and they can be seen
across the globe (Acar et al., 2014). News stories spread faster as well due
to social media sites because news corporations have the option to reach
a wider and global audience instantly. The pictures, videos or other
contents shared on these websites are stored on the online servers which
can be accessed and copied by anyone in the world. It means that

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embarrassing moments of people stored on the web and people have to
option to access them for a longer period of time continuously. Due to this
feature, it has become easier for people to store large data for a longer
period time. Therefore, the embarrassing moments of people remain on
the web for a longer period of time, and it becomes difficult for parties to
remove these contents from the web.
Positive impact
Following are various scenarios in which cloud computing has a positive
impact on the fact that the web never forgets based on which people
receive various advantages.
 Storing personal data for long time
People are social animals, and they wanted to keep their data secure and
available for a long period of time. People wanted to keep their family,
friends, personal and work-related content saved throughout their life
which includes pictures of babies, videos of vacation trips, hangouts with
friends and others. It has become easier for people to take these files
directly through their smartphone or computer. As people grow, the
number of these files increases as well and it becomes difficult to manage
all these files. Files which are physically stored such as albums, CDs,
DVDs, hard disk or others have the risk of damage to the file in case an
accident occurred. Thus, cloud computing has a positive impact on
people’s lives in this scenario. It enables them to store their personal files
on the web which they can access any time. People can upload their
photos, videos, music or other files on the cloud and it is stored forever
(Chen and Zhao, 2012). These pictures can be accessed by them at any
time, and they can access them from all across the globe as well. In case
any accident occurred, these files remain stored on the cloud which
reduces the risk of loss of data. Google is a major company which offers
free cloud services to its customers. Recently, the company has
announced that its users can upload unlimited number of pictures and
videos on its cloud servers without paying for any fees which shows the

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positive side of cloud computing (Ogasawara, 2015). Therefore, it is
correct to say that the web never forgets and it can be used positively by
people to save their memories.
 Ubiquitous access
After uploading files on the cloud, people have the option to access these
files from all across the globe. It is a key advantage with cloud storage
which is not the case with any other physical storage options. On social
media sites, people can share a picture of their baby and their relatives
living on the other side of the globe can see that picture instantly (Xu et
al., 2014). The picture also remained forever on the social media website
which can be accessed by anyone. It shows that power of cloud computing
technology and its ability to positively influence people’s lives. It enables
people to ubiquitously access their data from anywhere in the world which
is not the option if the files are stores physically. It creates a ubiquitous
environment which fosters collaborations in the workplace and strong
relationships between people across the globe. Thus, it has a positive
impact on people’s lives.
 Keeping organisational data secured
The corporations have to deal with a large number of paperwork which
contains confidential data regarding the business. In case these files are
lost, then the work of the company is hindering, and it could face financial
detriments. On the other hand, the corporations can use cloud computing
to go paperless by storing all its data on the cloud. The files are stored
forever on the web, and they can be accessed by the company anytime.
This is a blessing for multinational corporations since all the branches of
the company can access the files without any delay. It also reduces the
risk of theft or damage to the confidential paperwork since companies can
protect them through a password (Sood, 2012). As long as the company
continues to pay the charges for the cloud, their data remain secured.

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Negative impact
Along with positive impact, there are various negative factors of cloud
computing because the stored data is never deleted from the web.
Following are certain examples which show that the reason that the web
never forgets resulted in adversely affecting people.
 Embarrassing moments
It has become easier for people to record others’ embarrassing moments
through their smartphones, and they are easily sharing them on the
internet. These pictures and videos become viral instantly, and people all
across the globe see them. Many times the person in the video or image
gets benefits of becoming viral, however, for others, it becomes a living
nightmare. Anywhere they go people recognise them and started making
fun of them. The cloud computing technology has made it easier for
people to store these files on the internet where they can be accessed by
them anytime (Hasan, 2014). These files are easily copied by people, and
they remain on the web forever. Therefore, it becomes difficult for people
to live their lives because even if people move on to another content, but,
the person continues to suffer because these files did not go away from
the web.
 Revenge porn
Revenge porn is referred to sharing or distribution of explicit images of
another person without their consent. Many countries have recognised it
as a serious criminal offence under which the people can be punished for
sharing revenge porn. Once these files are leaked on the internet, then
they are copied by others and even after removing them from one
website, it becomes impossible to remove these files from all over the
internet. Since the web never forgets, the victim who is in these videos or
photos is exposed to the entire world due to which the victim can suffer
physical or mental suffering (Citron and Franks, 2014). In many cases, the
victim is left with no choice but to commit suicide. For example, Tiziana
Cantone committed suicide when an explicit video of her was leaked on

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the internet by her former partner that turned into meme on social media
sites and people started making fun of her (Tutty, 2018). She did not have
any other choice by to commit suicide because the web never forgets and
her video was always remained on the internet due to which she would
not have been able to live her life normally. There are many victims of
revenge porn incidents due to which the parties are left with no choice by
to commit suicide. In many cases, these explicit images or videos are
hosted by websites, and they extort money from the victim by
blackmailing them to remove these files. It shows a negative side of cloud
computing technology because it is very difficult to remove files from the
internet and it resulted in adversely affecting people’s lives.
 Failure to access the data
Although the cloud computing technology enables users to access their
data from all across the globe, however, it did not mean that it is secured.
The cloud also negatively affects the statement that the web never
forgets because there are many exceptions to this rule. Firstly, the
organisations or individuals who wanted to keep their data in the cloud
have to pay charges for the same to their cloud service providers (Rong,
Nguyen and Jaatun, 2013). If they did not make the payment on time,
then the CSP has the right to block their access to the content after which
the parties cannot access their own data without making their payment. If
the payments are not made for a long period, then the CSP has the right
to delete the data to free up space in servers. Many times an accident can
occur on the server location which could result in damaging the servers. If
the servers are damages, then all the data is lost, and the parties cannot
access such data. However, it is highly unlikely that parties lost all their
data because these servers are kept secured by CSPs, and they also keep
back-up of important files.
 Dependence on the internet
In order to use cloud computing technology, the parties are completely
dependent on the internet. Without access to a high speed and reliable

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internet connection, parties cannot access their files from anywhere which
are stored on the cloud. However, it does not mean that the content on
the internet is lost or deleted. It is still accessible by anyone who has an
internet connection (Sanaei et al., 2014). Thus, the web did not forget
even when the parties did not have an internet connection, and their files
are stored on the internet. However, many organisations and individuals
avoid relying on cloud computing technology because of the high
dependence on the internet.
 Breach of privacy
The data which is stored on the cloud can be breached due to cyber-
attacks, and cybercriminals can gain unauthorised access to the data by
hacking into the servers of CSPs (Kshetri, 2013). The data stored on the
web is not secured, and it can be violated by hackers. It shows the
negative side of cloud computing technology because the personal data of
users can be violated and it can be leaked on the web. A good example is
leaking of private pictures of more than 500 celebrities in 2014 from the
cloud service of Apple called iCloud. The hacker was able to access to the
cloud of these celebrities, and he downloaded their explicit images on the
internet (Kamps, 2015). It shows the negative impact of cloud computing
because these images will be on the web forever and even the
government cannot take any action about it to remove these images.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, cloud computing technology has the potential to change
people’s lives because it provides them various opportunities and threats.
With the popularity of cloud computing technology, the statement that the
web never forgets has become true because people can store their data in
the cloud which remain available forever. Its positive impact is that people
can forever store their memories, organisational data and access them
from anywhere. However, the negative impact of the fact that the web
never forgets is that people’s embarrassing moments or explicit content
including revenge porn always remain on the internet. Although these files
can be lost due to damage of servers, but, it is highly unlikely. Moreover,
there is the risk of privacy breach of people when they use cloud due to
which their private data always remain available on the cloud. Thus, cloud
computing has both positive and negative impact on the statement that
the web never forgets.

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