Cloud Storage

[Darius1968]

I'm sorry if the topic of cloud storage has been addressed in this forum before.  Just seeking opinions & info from others about recommendations for cloud storage in terms of price, safety, etc. 

[sinus]

Interesting anyway.
I think, if we crypt our stuff before we upload it to a cloud, then it could be quite safe.
About the easiest one, because they are alreaedy installed with Windows, like (I believe) Microsoft or google, I do not know.

[Mario]

Privacy is a great concern with cloud storage. Adobe got hacked in the past (twice even, I guess) and in many European countries it is illegal to upload 'personal' data without explicit permission of the involved persons into clouds not covered by the countries rules and recommendations. If you upload images of your friends into some cloud, you need to ask them for permission first, for example. Make sure you know about and understand the privacy laws in your country. Since most of the cloud vendors host data in the U.S. and thus under the control of the U.S. government and their various secret services, many countries have now strict regulations of what you can upload into these clouds and what not. If you run a business, additional restrictions apply.

And, remember that many cloud vendors reserve the right to analyze the data you upload into their cloud in some ways. This is usually mentioned somewhere in the 30 pages of small print you have to accept before uploading. Most people don't read this, which plays directly into the hands of data kraken like Google or Facebook. They may use GPS data in your images to learn where you have been. They may use face data gathered elsewhere to learn about the persons you know from your images. They may analyze your images for known locations, places, products you use etc. The fine print is usually so fuzzy that not even lawyers truly understand what you agree to... Most people just fall for the 'free' offer and don't care for the rest. Which is exactly what the data kraken companies want.

That said, I use the cloud for tertiary (level 3) backup.
(1 = RAID disks, 2 = daily backups on external local disks with several months retention and off-site storage, 3 = cloud backup).

I have an Microsoft Office subscription (about €60 per year) which not only gives me all Office products for 5 users, but also 1TB (1000GB) of cloud space (OneDrive) per user. This makes 5 TB cloud storage, which is a lot.

I never upload anything unencrypted into the cloud.
I use a free product named VeraCrypt which makes it super easy to encrypt data locally and upload it into the cloud. Basically this software creates a virtual disk on your system. Everything you write to this disk is encrypted and automatically decrypted when you read the data back. A similar product is BoxCryptor (free for non-commercial use).

The virtual disk is implemented as a big file on your hard disk. And when you place that file in your OneDrive (Microsoft), DropBox or GoogleDrive folder it will be automatically synchronized with the cloud - but you only upload encrypted data. Basically a big binary blob which does not allow Google or others to analyze your personal data. The encrypted disk can be of any size, you can create multiple of them. And by copying the file containing your virtual disk you can backup the entire disk. Very convenient and secure.

Since I get 5TB OnDrive with my Office subscription I don't use any other cloud vendor anymore.

[sinus]

I never upload anything unencrypted into the cloud.
I use a free product named VeraCrypt which makes it super easy to encrypt data locally and upload it into the cloud. Basically this software creates a virtual disk on your system. Everything you write to this disk is encrypted and automatically decrypted when you read the data back.

If all is encrypted, can you then for example upload a file (like a pdf) and read it with your smartphone? (for surely not sensitive files)
I guess not, because it is encrypted.

[Mario]

You need to have the encryption/description software installed on all devices where you want to access your cloud storage. This gives you an end-to-end encryption.
Just for sharing a PDF this is overkill - unless the PDF contains secret data you don't want to share with the cloud vendor or any of the companies involved in uploading, distribution and cloud management in.between (your ISP, network companies, cloud company).

[sinus]

You need to have the encryption/description software installed on all devices where you want to access your cloud storage. This gives you an end-to-end encryption.
Just for sharing a PDF this is overkill - unless the PDF contains secret data you don't want to share with the cloud vendor or any of the companies involved in uploading, distribution and cloud management in.between (your ISP, network companies, cloud company).

Thanks, Mario

I will look into this.

[Mario]

For multi-platform, check out Boxcryptor: https://www.boxcryptor.com/de/

Vercrypt is for Windows/Mac/Linux but not for mobile platforms as far as I know.