If our notes and clippings are saved at LOGOS? And if so how much privacy can we expect?
Mathew,
Bob Pritchett has addressed this issue here:
http://community.logos.com/forums/p/3298/25071.aspx#25071
Russ
So what you saying (and do you know this to be a fact?) is that everyone has access to my personal notes and clippings, which are just meant for myself.
everyone has access to my personal notes and clippings,
No - only you have access. This is not a major change in that the sermon add-in offered an option to share your sermons. Nothing yet implies even that we will be able to share notes through the Logos servers.
I must admit I would be more comfortable with it if I could control what gets uploaded from my computer, without losing all the updates by having LOGOS 4 not connect to the web at all.
I'm not saying anything other than posting a link to Bob Pritchett's comments on the issue.
I notice that the link takes you to the beginning of that thread instead of to Bob's comments on page 2 as I intended (not sure why).
The Russ on that thread is a different Russ than me. I haven't read all of his concerns.
I am pasting Bob's comments in full here for your convenience.
Russ, Thanks for bringing up these points. They're legitimate concerns, and I share many of them, particularly in regards to business and financial information. Some of the beta testers have already accurately given our position: we let you run offline, we are privately held with no intentions of selling, and your data is all stored locally. (In some ways it's "safer", because we use the cloud to sync your data to your machine; we don't store it exclusively in the cloud like some web sites. So the more machines you have, the more backups you have independent of our servers.) We do have a secure system. (Though not perfect -- nothing is.) I can say this with confidence because our volume of credit card transactions forces us to comply with PCI Security Standards (https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/), and we've audited our systems, conformed to their rules, etc. I'm wearing an employee photo ID right now as a result of their requirements. (So no one can pose as Logos employee, sneak in, and sit down at a terminal to steal your credit card number. Or sermon.) But even more importantly, this is Bible study, not banking. We took the decision to sync your content to the cloud very seriously, but in the end we decided that since the vast majority of our customers use our software to prepare sermons that they then aim to preach in public to as many people as they can get to show up at the church, it's not a life / career / finances destroying problem if we are ever hacked. (And we're probably not that interesting a target to hack! The only thing of value to an outsider is the credit card numbers, and, alas, pastors' credit card numbers don't have the larger limits they should!) I know there are people doing Bible study in closed countries, or taking notes regarding confidential counseling situations. We do take privacy seriously, and keep those things in mind. But if you're in a place where the fact you're doing Bible study is life threatening, you probably shouldn't use an Internet connected app like ours, whether it stores your notes in the cloud or not. And if there's something that confidential in your counseling notes, don't store those things in our software. (Also, don't store passwords or credit card numbers in Logos notes, or as tags on your books in the Library. :-) ) Again, I'm not trying to trivialize the concern, but simply to illustrate that we thought of it, and that we aren't encouraging you to store anything we'd consider truly confidential within our system.
Russ,
Thanks for bringing up these points. They're legitimate concerns, and I share many of them, particularly in regards to business and financial information.
Some of the beta testers have already accurately given our position: we let you run offline, we are privately held with no intentions of selling, and your data is all stored locally. (In some ways it's "safer", because we use the cloud to sync your data to your machine; we don't store it exclusively in the cloud like some web sites. So the more machines you have, the more backups you have independent of our servers.)
We do have a secure system. (Though not perfect -- nothing is.) I can say this with confidence because our volume of credit card transactions forces us to comply with PCI Security Standards (https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/), and we've audited our systems, conformed to their rules, etc. I'm wearing an employee photo ID right now as a result of their requirements. (So no one can pose as Logos employee, sneak in, and sit down at a terminal to steal your credit card number. Or sermon.)
But even more importantly, this is Bible study, not banking. We took the decision to sync your content to the cloud very seriously, but in the end we decided that since the vast majority of our customers use our software to prepare sermons that they then aim to preach in public to as many people as they can get to show up at the church, it's not a life / career / finances destroying problem if we are ever hacked. (And we're probably not that interesting a target to hack! The only thing of value to an outsider is the credit card numbers, and, alas, pastors' credit card numbers don't have the larger limits they should!)
I know there are people doing Bible study in closed countries, or taking notes regarding confidential counseling situations. We do take privacy seriously, and keep those things in mind. But if you're in a place where the fact you're doing Bible study is life threatening, you probably shouldn't use an Internet connected app like ours, whether it stores your notes in the cloud or not. And if there's something that confidential in your counseling notes, don't store those things in our software.
(Also, don't store passwords or credit card numbers in Logos notes, or as tags on your books in the Library. :-) )
Again, I'm not trying to trivialize the concern, but simply to illustrate that we thought of it, and that we aren't encouraging you to store anything we'd consider truly confidential within our system.
If I understand Bob correctly, I would say that notes and clippings are not shared for everyone to see. They have a fair amount of security and are only synced with your account.
However, Bob is offering the disclaimer that notes and clippings do not have the same security standards as banking applications and so it would not be wise to store information that you would consider confidential. On the other hand, the likelihood of someone hacking into the system is very small.
Thanks for doing that, but with Bob knowing this why not make it an option to get your downloads and updates without uploading your personal notes and clippings??
Bob has indicated that he has future plans for options regarding sharing notes at this thread:
http://community.logos.com/forums/p/6509/50418.aspx#50418
This is coming. You'll be able to share directly over the Internet, most likely by creating/joining a group and then sharing your files with that group. Do you want: A) One-time sharing: Someone can make a copy of one of your files, which is then their own unique copy they can independently edit and modify. Read-only sharing: Someone can read your notes, and keeps getting synced updates to them as you modify them, but can't change them. C) Shared files: You can share a file, and then you and all the people you share it with can edit, modify, and change it, with changes associated/labeled with who made them. ?
This is coming. You'll be able to share directly over the Internet, most likely by creating/joining a group and then sharing your files with that group.
Do you want:
A) One-time sharing: Someone can make a copy of one of your files, which is then their own unique copy they can independently edit and modify.
Read-only sharing: Someone can read your notes, and keeps getting synced updates to them as you modify them, but can't change them.
C) Shared files: You can share a file, and then you and all the people you share it with can edit, modify, and change it, with changes associated/labeled with who made them.
?
It sounds like it is a great time to make suggestions for how you would like to see it work.
It would probably be best to either reply to that thread or create a new thread with your suggestion with a descriptive title in the Suggestion area of the Forum.
{EDIT}
Logos (particularly Bob) is very interested in hearing user suggestions. I have found them to be exceptionally responsive to user input offered in a constructive manner.
Thanks Russ, I did just that.
As with anything on the Internet, you have to be concerned about this. Even if Logos makes every possible effort to ensure privacy, once it goes out over the Internet there is always going to be a chance that you will not have this privacy. That is the cost of doing business in the digital world. Banks lose data and that is some of the most sensitive data available. So while I personally trust Logos if they promise privacy. I believe they will deliver to the best of their ability. But there is no 100 percent. A person could break into your home and steal your three ring binder of personal journals.
