The free and open source software movement has gained much traction over the last few years. Users of all operating systems have begun embracing Firefox the open source and community maintained browser. And some, like myself have ventured into the world of Linux, a free and open source operating system that can completely replace Windows.

Recently members of the GNU and Linux communities have begun pondering the affect of web based applications on their lives, and questioning whether or not these utilities are truly “free”, despite the fact that they represent no monetary expenditure. The question has become, what value does the data that you have input hold? Many people have never asked themselves that question, have you ever thought: “how can I get my facebook pictures back?”. The short answer is you can’t.

There are two very interesting articles that dive further into this subject than I am willing to. “Avoiding the Javascript Trap” on the tux HQ website gives a good perspective on the issue (http://tuxradar.com/content/avoiding-javascript-trap). The original article by Richard Stallman entitled “The Javascript Trap” (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html) is an excellent article hosting on the GNU website.

I personally don’t have an answer to this very important question. I have much of my personal data hosted in the cloud with no apparent way to get it back, and I think it’s important that we begin realizing that our data has value, and we much be the keepers of its worth.

Regards,
Adam Haney