BalBurgh

[url=http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/9864/palm-pre-reports-users-daily-actions-and-location/]

Is anyone else worried about what this article describes? That Palm backs up everything from your device to its servers every day, that your device reports all apps run and your location (though you can apparently shut at least part of the latter down)?

I've been pretty stoked to get one of these things once they hit Verizon, but I am also beginning to have second thoughts about the method of making some of the "magic" possible and the reliance on the cloud.

Let me state: I do not like the Cloud. Or, at least, I do not want to be forced to store any personal information in the Cloud. It's great to access other information that people choose to make available, but that's the point--you have to be able to choose. If there's not choice there may be no Pre (or anything else that behaves the same way).

OK, I know that all cellular devices can be used to track location, and the privacy is in many ways becoming a dead letter, but that doesn't mean I have to throw my kimono open to the universe. I want more control of what can be seen and what cannot be seen. The Pre may make too much visible in ways I cannot control.

I do not need to automatically access four pushed, merged, e-mail accounts the data for which is stored on someone else's server. I want them to be stored on my machine and deleted from the server (or at least on a desktop device with lots of storage, I can live with a handheld doing read-only) and I want to access this stuff when I click a button. Goodness, I'm not THAT lazy...

Anyway, what does anyone think about these issues and does anyone know how any of the other most popular smart devices (iPhone, Blackberry, Google) behave?

Thanks...

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