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I'm pretty sure the recovery process for backblaze includes them decrypting your files on their infrastructure and then sending to you. Or something like that.

I'm pretty sure the recovery process for backblaze includes them decrypting your files on their infrastructure and then sending to you. Or something like that. I did a ton of research into the different options recently and didn't like backblaze because of that. However, I decided to give them a try anyway as I was partly researching for a friend who desperately needed backups and didn't care about that as much. So I installed backblaze on a machine and was surprised to find that 1) the exe is apparently modified per user so you don't have to login (memory hazy) and 2) it _immediately_ starts uploading _everything_ which really pissed me off. Like I get it, full system backups, but still I want some acknowledgement of what's about to happen and options to pare it down if I want. Nooope. So yeah I don't think Bacblaze is gonna work for GP with their NDA given they can't restore without breaking it.

xoa 7y ago
I'll point out that nothing stops you, with any service at all, from encrypting yourself then backing that up. Ie., it's completely fine with Backblaze to dump everything into an encrypted sparseimage first, and then back up that rather then your drive directly. That's not to say getting a couple of simple external USB HDDs and then rotating them into a firesafe offsite once a week isn't a good idea too, or having a NAS, or any of an endless number of other solutions. But in many cases using a 3rd party cloud service has advantages, and if you take care of encrypting contents yourself so that you just plain can ignore any security or lack thereof it'll make more options available, and possibly cheaper ones. It's all just bits and bytes.
- wDcBKgt66V8WDs 7y ago
  This is true but it adds a lot of complexity and brittleness for the average person.
ValentineC 7y ago
> it _immediately_ starts uploading _everything_ which really pissed me off. Like I get it, full system backups, but still I want some acknowledgement of what's about to happen and options to pare it down if I want. They've written about why they made this UX decision before [1], and it was because of "naive customers" who ended up either deselecting the C drive, or accidentally doing so. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/b6lbew/were_the_backblaze_cloud_team_managing_750/ejlawg8/?context=10000 https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/b6lbew/were_the_backb...

xoa 7y ago

I'll point out that nothing stops you, with any service at all, from encrypting yourself then backing that up. Ie., it's completely fine with Backblaze to dump everything into an encrypted sparseimage first, and then back up that rather then your drive directly. That's not to say getting a couple of simple external USB HDDs and then rotating them into a firesafe offsite once a week isn't a good idea too, or having a NAS, or any of an endless number of other solutions. But in many cases using a 3rd party cloud service has advantages, and if you take care of encrypting contents yourself so that you just plain can ignore any security or lack thereof it'll make more options available, and possibly cheaper ones. It's all just bits and bytes.

wDcBKgt66V8WDs 7y ago
This is true but it adds a lot of complexity and brittleness for the average person.

ValentineC 7y ago

> it _immediately_ starts uploading _everything_ which really pissed me off. Like I get it, full system backups, but still I want some acknowledgement of what's about to happen and options to pare it down if I want. They've written about why they made this UX decision before [1], and it was because of "naive customers" who ended up either deselecting the C drive, or accidentally doing so. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/b6lbew/were_the_backblaze_cloud_team_managing_750/ejlawg8/?context=10000 https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/b6lbew/were_the_backb...