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Brian from Backblaze here. > they've shaved every other cost in their system to the bone to achieve a low cost product for the consumer In addition to making

Brian from Backblaze here. > they've shaved every other cost in their system to the bone to achieve a low cost product for the consumer In addition to making sure you have a backup you can restore from, we always want Backblaze to be: 1) fast (low impact on your system performance), 2) easy, 3) inexpensive. You only focused on the inexpensive part. To be super easy, we need to be as easy as it is to sign into your Gmail account -> username and password and that is it. Then for the more security conscious (just like Gmail) we offer two factor authentication, and go even further than Gmail goes by providing the ability to set a private passphrase. > their average customer is backing up data that's on the same drive that the keys would be on This is correct. We could require the customers to remember their own private encryption key on a USB thumb drive and store it at their bank in a safety deposit box, but that would SEVERELY decrease the number of customers Backblaze has. > this is defective by design in order to support surveillance requests. Backblaze has never had a surveillance request. Plus, if you set a private passphrase we literally could not comply because we simply could not decrypt your data. We really, REALLY don't want to know what is in your backup and we take great pains to not know. Seriously, it is a liability to us to know what is in your backup. It is a liability to have the ability to decrypt your backup. You can also check out our team at https://www.backblaze.com/company/team.html https://www.backblaze.com/company/team.html and ask around about us. We have been in the same 30 mile radius in Silicon Valley for 25 years (working at Apple computer, Silicon Graphics, HP, Oracle, GE, etc), and we have been doing online backup for ten years now. We take our customer privacy VERY seriously, and our personal reputations are extremely important to us. We are the good guys and we try our best to do right by our customers.

CodeWriter23 9y ago
You will be able to comply with a surveillance request WHEN a customer has to restore. Also, you've done nothing to address the risk eavesdropping due to 'bleed style exploits while transmitting my passphrase to BB servers. The passphrase should stay on my hardware period.
- brianwski 9y ago
  > address the risk eavesdropping due to 'bleed style exploits while transmitting my passphrase to BB servers You are correct. There is a "window of decreased security" where IF there was a zero day hack on the same day you prepared a restore -> your data might be compromised. > The passphrase should stay on my hardware period. For some customers and some data, that is true. If you would PREFER to lose your data than to have even a 0.000001% chance of that data being read by hackers then I totally agree with you. A good example is if you will immediately be arrested and sent to jail for the rest of your life if the information in your files is ever discovered, then you should keep the passphrase on your hardware (or preferably only in your head and never written down). But let's say the data is simply all your pictures of your dogs and your vacations? That type of customer might value increasing the chance of getting the data back over the ultimate security solution. Having a recoverable password lowers security (because anybody who gains access to your email can now access your data) but it increases the chance of data recovery. People forget passwords sometimes. Different customers have different preferences, and Backblaze tries to offer several valid choices and let the customer decide which one to use.
  - CodeWriter23 9y ago
    You're really conflating issues. Yes, Store the Passphrase-protected private key on your server. No, do not send my passphrase to your server for a restore. Yes, send the private key to my client. No, do not decrypt my data server side. Yes decrypt it client side after I enter my passphrase into my client. No, don't transmit my passphrase anywhere at all. By arguing the passphrase should be sent to BB servers, you're unnecessarily violating two fundamental principles of security, least access and least privilege.

CodeWriter23 9y ago

You will be able to comply with a surveillance request WHEN a customer has to restore. Also, you've done nothing to address the risk eavesdropping due to 'bleed style exploits while transmitting my passphrase to BB servers. The passphrase should stay on my hardware period.

brianwski 9y ago
> address the risk eavesdropping due to 'bleed style exploits while transmitting my passphrase to BB servers You are correct. There is a "window of decreased security" where IF there was a zero day hack on the same day you prepared a restore -> your data might be compromised. > The passphrase should stay on my hardware period. For some customers and some data, that is true. If you would PREFER to lose your data than to have even a 0.000001% chance of that data being read by hackers then I totally agree with you. A good example is if you will immediately be arrested and sent to jail for the rest of your life if the information in your files is ever discovered, then you should keep the passphrase on your hardware (or preferably only in your head and never written down). But let's say the data is simply all your pictures of your dogs and your vacations? That type of customer might value increasing the chance of getting the data back over the ultimate security solution. Having a recoverable password lowers security (because anybody who gains access to your email can now access your data) but it increases the chance of data recovery. People forget passwords sometimes. Different customers have different preferences, and Backblaze tries to offer several valid choices and let the customer decide which one to use.
- CodeWriter23 9y ago
  You're really conflating issues. Yes, Store the Passphrase-protected private key on your server. No, do not send my passphrase to your server for a restore. Yes, send the private key to my client. No, do not decrypt my data server side. Yes decrypt it client side after I enter my passphrase into my client. No, don't transmit my passphrase anywhere at all. By arguing the passphrase should be sent to BB servers, you're unnecessarily violating two fundamental principles of security, least access and least privilege.