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Ask HN: Who do you trust most with your data?
1. Apple iCloud Documents
2. Dropbox Personal
3. Dropbox Business
4. Google Drive
I have bits and pieces on each service. I’m interested in decluttering. Which should I choose?
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoI would point out that right now, you have your data divided across four different buckets, which means no one provider can completely compromise your data. Why would you want to end this arrangement?
- dguo 9y agoThe OP gave a specific reason: "I’m interested in decluttering."
- Osmium 9y agoP(your data compromised) = 1 - P(storage provider never hacked)^(number of storage providers) All else equal, using more storage providers increases your risk of exposure, not decreases it. And for most classes of sensitive data, the loss of any of that data can still cause problems, e.g. imagine health records... if only 1/5th of your patient data was hacked, that would still be a very bad situation (and before anyone asks, yes people use Dropbox for this[1]). [1] https://www.dropbox.com/static/business/resources/getting_started_with_hipaa.pdf https://www.dropbox.com/static/business/resources/getting_st...
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoI think the issue is that you're assuming storage providers exist that will never get hacked, or that there's a scenario that entails your data being stored out on the Internet and not compromised. I think we are in a "when, not if" world for security compromise.
- jlgaddis 9y agoAs long as you encrypt all of your data before uploading it, trust isn't such a big factor.
- purespark2 9y agoIs there any software that can do this in a very user friendly way? Ideally after entering a key when installing the software, I would never know that encryption is happening.
- rbcgerard 9y agoCheck out https://cryptomator.org https://cryptomator.org
- daniel_iversen 9y agoYes that seems quite nice (if you want to go that far). It also works well with the Dropbox (and others) sync engine because it encrypts individual files as opposed to making a large sparse bundle/volume file. Don’t think it allows you to take advantage of delta-byte syncing though because while compression algorithms can now cater for the rsync-like delta sync functionality you find in some cloud storage clients my guess is that wouldn’t be optimal for secure encryption (but I don’t know it’s just a guess) - but if you aren’t changing the files a lot the speed degradation may be outweighed by your desired outcome. It also works well for Dropbox shared folders in case you have the need to share folders with other people but still want this additional layer of encryption. And of course since it’s open source it may make you feel more comfortable about the encryption.
- daniel_iversen 9y ago...that said though, I actually do want to say that personally I'm always very conscious of what the tradeoff is.. I like to keep my files in a flexible format that's future proof and to be able to move it around and manipulate them in a fast way. The risk with something like Cryptomator, despite it looking pretty neat and being open source etc, that if people decide to not maintain it anymore then my files are stuck in an encrypted format that one would have to develop code (or use an old OS with an old version of Cryptomator) to access them.. so I'd prefer leaving my files in Dropbox (who encrypts my files on their/our side) and on full-disk encrypted hard drives instead. But each to their own of course!
- Rjevski 9y agoiCloud, as they mainly make their money from Apple hardware purchases.
- flixic 9y agoAFAIK, Apple is the only one storing documents encrypted (with your own keys) at rest.
- jasonlotito 9y agoDropbox. They are the only ones to not lose my data, randomly share my private things to the public, or have crappy clients.
- berberous 9y agoThey did have that pretty terrible bug where you could log-in to anyone's account with a blank password for a while though...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- herhor 9y agoI switched to Mega (safer, bigger, e2e encrypted) and never looked back.
- blattimwind 9y agoNone of the above.
- j88439h84 9y agoNextcloud
- bobwaycott 9y agoI don’t even trust myself with my data. It’s too easy to do something stupid. How could I possibly trust anyone more than that?
- danso 9y agoNo one cares more than I do that I not be horribly maimed or obliterated in a high speed collision, but I trust certain vehicle manufacturers and airlines more than I do their competitors.
- bobwaycott 9y agoYou appear to be answering a question of comparative preference, which is neither direct to my point, nor homologous to the question asked. The trust one places in a vehicle manufacturer or airline with one’s life is vastly different from the trust one places in a for-profit corporation with one’s data. I’ll grant you that I initially read the Ask HN to be a question about personal/private data, rather than what appears on subsequent reading to be a more general kind of data storage question. Either way, it’s still a vastly different level of trust that doesn’t approach the severity of your example (in my mind).
- zaat 9y agoDifferent people can mean different things when they speak of trust. What kind of trust are you looking for and what's most important to you? You want your data to remain highly private? available at all time? versioned forever? You want the provider to have decent support when you need it? If you'll define what your requirements and priorities are you it will be easier to find the service that is best for you.
- plg 9y agoI'm mainly interested in: 1. high availability (can access it using many devices) 2. security (it's secure against intruders) 3. privacy (the company who hosts my data won't mine it for their purposes)
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- caio1982 9y agoIf only I could pay for a service as easy to use as Dropbox but have my personal data managed by a company such as Apple...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- cvaidya1986 9y agoExactly in that order.
- bo1024 9y agoLong term, personal, and/or sizeable data, like my photos: my own hard drives, backed up every few months. Stuff I work on daily: sync with a VPS I pay a small monthly fee for, using version control.
- needcaffeine 9y agoWhat would happen to your personal data if you got burgled?
- bo1024 9y agoGood point. One backup is onsite, one is offsite (that one only updated every few months).
- daniel_iversen 9y agoDropbox and Apple equally. But I work at Dropbox and I know how much effort goes into trust, security, privacy and compliance. Also for your interest the underlying infrastructure with its security measures etc is common between both Personal and Business products (one of the main differences with the business product is that it allows you to hook into your own enterprise security related systems such as IdM, DLP/CASB, SIEM, malware scanning etc as well as control security settings for the whole “team” (mandate 2FA, set password strength levels and device approvals etc)
- sanbor 9y ago> I know how much effort goes into trust, security, privacy and compliance Yahoo had a security team that was completely bypassed by NSA by installing a kernel module [1] to get access to emails. With Condi in the board I wouldn't trust them that much. [1] https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/08/reuters-yahoo-email-scanning-done-using-a-linux-kernel-module/ https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/08/reuters-yahoo-email-scan...
- mercer 9y agoI find myself inclined to trust Dropbox because they really seem to have their 'shit' together. It's one of the most reliable 'cloud' tools that I've used so far. But I share the concern about Condi on the board, and I'm curious if others can weigh in on how justified that concern is. Ideally, of course, I'd like to hear someone from Dropbox to say something about this, but I can understand how they wouldn't touch this topic with a ten-foot pole.
- craftyguy 9y agoNone of those. I use syncthing.
- needcaffeine 9y agoI sync my photos, iPhone backups, and documents to iCloud Drive. My documents folder is backed up by Google Drive.
- newscracker 9y agoFor the specific services listed in the post, I trust them in the order listed, but just these — Apple iCloud and Dropbox. I don't like the idea of Google (or anyone else) scanning my data, even though the security practices may be good. I store the really sensitive information encrypted using a volume (which appears as a file when not mounted and when uploaded) created by Veracrpyt [1] (a replacement for TrueCrypt). I use a long pass phrase to encrypt this volume. For slightly less sensitive information, like photos, I store them on SpiderOak. I avoid putting sensitive information anywhere unless it's encrypted before the upload starts (on my end). I also prefer paying for services. I would strongly recommend using client side encryption, and checking out the options others have mentioned. [1]: https://www.veracrypt.fr https://www.veracrypt.fr
- fjeuplos 9y agoTresorit - https://tresorit.com/ https://tresorit.com/ How anyone can trust Dropbox, the sort of US based cloud company that appoints people like Condoleezza Rice to the board is beyond me.
- mstaoru 9y agoStopped trusting Dropbox after they were caught mimicking OS X administrator prompt: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12463338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12463338 - no matter how much they talk about good intentions, that shows company core values to me. Stopped using and trusting iCloud after Apple was forced to pass it to some shady Chinese provider in China (I live in China). I just run a small home DIY NAS with a simple RAID 6 config for Time Machine and phone backup.