Most Internet users know what Webmail is. Many are familiar with YouTube, or at least the concept of watching videos online. But how many of them understand that they those applications live in the clouds?

A new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that the 69 percent of Internet users who tap into cloud-based applications generally don't have much of an understanding of how those applications are actually provided to them.

They love the convenience and flexibility of being able to access the same content from any computer, but they have reservations about how their data is being used.

"The tradeoffs that people engage in worry them, and sometimes can be very subtle," said John Horrigan, associate director of the Pew Internet Project and author of the report. "People use it more than they understand it."


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