Apple co-founder: Cloud storage leaves companies open to spying

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says tech companies depending on cloud storage of data have left that data open to prying by national security agencies. While he said he has sympathy for companies at odds with such agencies and their surveillance tactics, he called their own dependence on cloud-based server farms part of the problem, CNET reported Wednesday. "I think most companies, just like Apple, start out young and idealistic," Wozniak said at the Apps World North America convention in San Francisco. "But now all these companies are going to the cloud. And with the cloud you don't have any control." His remarks come after revelations about spying by the U.S. National Security Agency and its British equivalent, the GCHQ. In October, the Washington Post reported both agencies had infiltrated data stores belonging to Google and Yahoo! by targeting information as it moved between cloud storage centers. "We don't have any strong regulations or principles," Wozniak said of the extent of surveillance conducted by the federal government. When he was younger, he said, he accepted that law enforcement organizations could wiretap your phone if you were suspected of illegal activities, but he was strongly critical of some of the current tactics being employed by security agencies. "We're on a bad path in that direction," he said.