[CLOUD] Stashing Stuff Online? - Comments Page 2

I do not use or trust why would I need it or want it
I have my own

Hoping Google is looking after my photos. I teach Dropbox to elderly. Easy way to shift photos around.

Hoping Google is looking after my photos. I teach Dropbox to elderly. Easy way to shift photos around.

I'm sure the reliability of cloud storage is increasing and the security is evolving more or less in parallel with the black hats' arsenals. Still, I have two main reasons for not using cloud storage.
First, I don't (yet) have internet access everywhere I go (and it's even a bit unreliable at home).
And I don't want to help Google or whoever get their hands on all the information they could extract from my files, especially not my calendar.

While I can agree with the premise that all on-line storage can be hacked. So can your personal computer. While I too backup my files locally the problem is that a copy of the backup should be kept off site which I don't do and I suspect most people don't, especially those who state that they keep their drives on a "shelf". My solution, make a local backup then encrypt all sensitive files and back them up to the cloud storage that you prefer.

I use two cloud storage sites which has been very reliable for me. I also use two hard-drives connected by usb and an old seagate 1tb which is my main storage devise. It is about ten years old and I put everything off of an old windows 95, and my retired XP, best computer I ever owned.The segate is very easy to use and I use it every day.
JLT

Where does iDrive come into the mix? I believe it was sold on this site a couple years ago at a good price, and still bills me. I like having access when I'm in different places around the country and world. Only put stuff there I have backed up on an external drive.

No matter where you stash your data, it should not be the only place it exists. For data to be reasonably safe, it needs to exist in at least three different places. Usually, this means on the computer, on an onsite backup drive, and on an offsite backup drive. Good, paid, cloud storage can be used for offsite backups but it's usually easier and safer to use a paid cloud backup service, such as Backblaze.

I personally won't store anything on the a cloud, That's an issue I have with MS, Vorizon, and many other service's including some software that make's you rent the software and only use it online instead of being able to purchase it and keep it and all your data to your self. That's why I keep some old XP;win98;win7;computers alive and off line, and run my own home server and backup. I bought the progams for my use, and my data; not to be let out for it to be hijacked. My latest build is win10/win7 dual boot and when it's completed and set up, it's going off line. I'll use a cheep store bought unit for my online BS.

I don't trust the Cloud either! In fact, after reading this article I deleted all my photos from Dropbox. I have a 1 TB external hard drive for backups. Thank you, Bob, for your excellent, informative articles.