Yahoo users may get invitations to join something called “grouply”, which seems to group your email address and various identities under one scheme. Already it doesn’t sound good. It reminds me of that site that promised unlimited storage and suggested I keep my bank details on it. Hmm, yes, I just might not do that anytime soon.
Actually, MSN seems to be trying to do the same, and apparently I have an extra email address which I didn’t want, and now can’t find how to get to. Mm. Good. Nobody I know will be emailing me on that account anyway.
But having a quick trawl around the interwebnet, there are not many good things being said about Grouply. It seems to be a major security risk, and some sites even describe it as a scam.
That’s just about what I’d say. Some things are better left out of cyberspace.
Moreover, “grouply” appears to coincide with the trend toward “cloud” computing, which puts all of your data on somebody else’s server(s), apparently so that a hand-held, phone-sized computer could then effectively replace a mainframe, or something like that, which might be the ultimate bell and whistle for the purpose of selling Blackberries, iPhones, and Palms, but at a very high security risk.
Moreover, not only would I not subscribe to such services, but I’d also get the word about it out to everybody I know, as not a good thing! And, if enough users say no, then just maybe the enterprise will get the message, fuhgeddaboudit!
Ever since personal computing toppled the IT priesthood from their altars and gave people their own computing power, they’ve been trying to convince users to give it back. First thin clients (i.e. crippled computers). Then Web apps. And perpetual client re-activation. Now cloud computing. All your computing are belong to us. Yuck.