Fuck the Cloud!

For many years, when you created stuff using your computer or other device, you saved it to a folder on that device. Over time, computers made things even easier by coming with pre-designated folders for stuff. New game? It's in "Program Files." Just ripped your favorite CD? It's in "Music." Those photos of your uncle Fred? They're in "Pictures." You could then organize your stuff with as many or as few subfolders as you wanted. Maybe have a folder labeled "Thanksgiving Photos 2009," for instance.

Then about a decade ago came The Cloud.

Suddenly everybody wanted you to save your stuff to The Cloud. People who weren't particularly tech-savvy were mystified. I was instantly skeptical, just as a person who's been using computers since the 90s.

The Cloud is not some mystical benevolent force. The Cloud is just somebody else's computer.

And I don't mean "somebody else" as in your cool neighbor Hal. I mean a tech corporation. When you save to OneDrive, or any other variant of "The Cloud," you are saving to a tech corporation's computer. This means that you no longer have complete control over your own files.

It gets worse. The US government is currently trying to censor everything about BIPOC and queer people out of existence. They even got rid of a special-ed funding system because it mentioned kids "transitioning" to the real world after high school. They are literally just pressing Ctrl+F and deleting things that have certain buzzwords in them.

And because the fascists in charge are mostly techbros, this means that they could censor the files you send to the Cloud.

So stop saving to the Cloud. Download all your cloud-based files back onto your own devices. Take control of your own data back, before someone tries to use it to control YOU.