7 ms·

Encrypt your data before you upload to any storage. Do not upload anything in clear view and no one can flag your stuff.

taurath 9y ago
No one should be able to access anything in someone’s private cloud without a warrant full stop. The fact they can tag anything is a problem.
- ams6110 9y ago
  Well it's not really your private cloud unless you are running it. It's Google's cloud, and they are letting you use it under their terms.
  - jachee 9y ago
    Yup. "'Cloud' is just shorthand for 'someone else's computers'."
  - zeth___ 9y ago
    It's not really a private could period. You don't even own the hardware that you buy. All you do is reduce the attack surface the further down the stack you go.
  - TheCoelacanth 9y ago
    Exactly why you should never trust cloud storage.
- phkahler 9y ago
  Google's ToS has always indicated that they are free to rummage through your stuff kept on their systems. I still prefer them because they don't AFAIK share the data with outsiders. Sure, they'll use it for targeted advertising, but they do the targeting themselves with the data.
mercer 9y ago
I'm on a mac. Is there an easy way to encrypt my data before it's uploaded? Would an encrypted image, permanently 'open' on my system suffice?
- IAmEveryone 9y ago
  The encrypted image would theoretically work. Practically, I'm pretty sure iCloud cannot do differential backups and any change to any file in the image would require a complete re-upload. I actually wouldn't have a problem trusting Apple's promises on data privacy. Unfortunately, iCloud Drive is not yet encrypted end-to-end, unlike messages, keychain, photos and some other content. They're supposed to be working on it.
  - C14L 9y ago
    There is `rclone`, a command line tool a little similar to rsync, that supports many cloud storage providers. It does diffs too. https://rclone.org/ https://rclone.org/
  - mercer 9y ago
    I just realized that I already have an encrypted volume stored on Dropbox, so I did not need to ask. But to answer yours: I'm not 100% sure about iCloud, but at least Dropbox seems to have no trouble uploading only the changes of my (large) encrypted volume, whether it's mounted or not. I have run into problems, however, when I mount the image on multiple computers, so I'd recommend against that, or at least making any changes before everything is properly synced.
  - kccqzy 9y ago
    You can use sparse disk images so that your encrypted content is stored in chunks as little as one megabyte.
- innocentoldguy 9y ago
  This may not be what you're looking for, but I've been using SpiderOak on my Macs for about five years. SpiderOak encrypts all your files and syncs whatever folders you want it too seamlessly. I use it to keep the files on all my Macs in sync.

taurath 9y ago

No one should be able to access anything in someone’s private cloud without a warrant full stop. The fact they can tag anything is a problem.

ams6110 9y ago
Well it's not really your private cloud unless you are running it. It's Google's cloud, and they are letting you use it under their terms.
- jachee 9y ago
  Yup. "'Cloud' is just shorthand for 'someone else's computers'."
- zeth___ 9y ago
  It's not really a private could period. You don't even own the hardware that you buy. All you do is reduce the attack surface the further down the stack you go.
- TheCoelacanth 9y ago
  Exactly why you should never trust cloud storage.
phkahler 9y ago
Google's ToS has always indicated that they are free to rummage through your stuff kept on their systems. I still prefer them because they don't AFAIK share the data with outsiders. Sure, they'll use it for targeted advertising, but they do the targeting themselves with the data.

mercer 9y ago

I'm on a mac. Is there an easy way to encrypt my data before it's uploaded? Would an encrypted image, permanently 'open' on my system suffice?

IAmEveryone 9y ago
The encrypted image would theoretically work. Practically, I'm pretty sure iCloud cannot do differential backups and any change to any file in the image would require a complete re-upload. I actually wouldn't have a problem trusting Apple's promises on data privacy. Unfortunately, iCloud Drive is not yet encrypted end-to-end, unlike messages, keychain, photos and some other content. They're supposed to be working on it.
- C14L 9y ago
  There is `rclone`, a command line tool a little similar to rsync, that supports many cloud storage providers. It does diffs too. https://rclone.org/ https://rclone.org/
- mercer 9y ago
  I just realized that I already have an encrypted volume stored on Dropbox, so I did not need to ask. But to answer yours: I'm not 100% sure about iCloud, but at least Dropbox seems to have no trouble uploading only the changes of my (large) encrypted volume, whether it's mounted or not. I have run into problems, however, when I mount the image on multiple computers, so I'd recommend against that, or at least making any changes before everything is properly synced.
- kccqzy 9y ago
  You can use sparse disk images so that your encrypted content is stored in chunks as little as one megabyte.
innocentoldguy 9y ago
This may not be what you're looking for, but I've been using SpiderOak on my Macs for about five years. SpiderOak encrypts all your files and syncs whatever folders you want it too seamlessly. I use it to keep the files on all my Macs in sync.