I’m starting to feel that Google has made Firestore excessively easy for app developers. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s a good thing because it enables us to get up and running with databases without requiring a massive amount of complex knowledge. But it’s also a bad thing. A bad thing because, what if you’re not happy with Google holding the gate keys to your data?
Google isn’t known as the bastion of privacy and security. What if you’d prefer not to use Google‘s Firestore?
It’s somewhat counterintuitive to expect users who adopt the Apple ecosystem for reasons of privacy and security to then be happy with us App developers handing their data off to Google who, historically, have been the polar opposite to Apple when it comes to privacy and security.
I have to admit that if I’d known before this that developers of Apps on the Apple Appstore pass my data to Google, I would have been far more discerning in which Apps I downloaded and I’d have been asking the developers so very searching questions before I did. I ditched my Android phone and switched to the Apple eco-system primarily for reasons of privacy and security. To discover that Google get your data regardless of which phone you use is … well, uncomfortable to say the least.
I would have hoped, to be honest, that any course dealing with iOS Databases would focus on, well, on iOS Databases. Not solely on Google databases.
I would imagine that any database system we use would come with, or you’d have to write, your own classes for add / edit / deletion of data. That’s only to be expected. And, really, rather than relying on Google and all that Google stands for, that is what we should be learning.
I shall continue with the CWC+ iOS Database course, of course, because no knowledge is a waste, but I’ll be looking ahead to discovering how to use a database system that doesn’t rely on Google.
