President Obama signaled a newly collaborative spirit during his recent visit to Mexico, and emphasized strong focus on the Administration's agendas for immigration reform and the Drug War.

Economics are subtexts to both immigration reform and to the two nations' shared stake in ending the sales of and violence around illegal drugs. In the cities and towns of the U.S., far from the pomp of State visits, many Mexican-American immigrants also are likely to be especially concerned about another aspect of U.S. - Mexico relations that directly affects their lives:

The challenges they face in making Internet-based payments from the U.S. -- known as remittances -- to business partners, family-members or friends in Mexico.

The Cloud has changed the way we go through our day.  From the moment we wake up, we're updating our statuses on social networks and checking work e-mails before the coffee hits the cup.  An online community manager can access the administrator functions from his iPad.  A marketing manager can check Google Analytics from her Android smartphone.  The cloud computing market has enveloped our modern society and streamlined our days.

In the past year, it seems that just about every daily news cycle contains a scary story about corporations, governments or news organizations being 'hacked."  With all of the advantages inherent with using the cloud, there are underlying questions of data security.  For example, here is a partial list of American companies hit by shadowy groups or individuals who penetrated private databases via email, social networks, or by accessing cloud data storage centers within the first few weeks of 2013:

The words the cloud first popped up in technology and computer developer circles in 1994.  In brief, the cloud describes a third-party system that houses digital and data-based information on remote servers.

Since 1994, cloud computing has become more streamlined, affordable and widespread.  It has allowed companies large and small to save money on the storage of internal digital data -- including of accounting information, content archives and other sensitive categories of data.

As the digital revolution enters its third decade, are American consumers allowing their desire for high tech gadgets to compromise their privacy?

I decided a few years ago to forego the use of sites like FourSquare and Yelp, especially their mobile apps, which allow one to "check in" at places.  It seemed to me that the data trail resulting from locational apps are ripe for "mining" by marketing concerns, who accumulate them into gushing streams known as big data. Then there are even more unsavory possibilities for how your personal data trail might negatively impact your life, including in legal and medical contexts.