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This is incorrect. Full text search works by querying an index. The client has access to all of the encrypted indexed content, so it can easily build the index,

This is incorrect. Full text search works by querying an index. The client has access to all of the encrypted indexed content, so it can easily build the index, encrypt it and upload it. Cloud providers couldn't "give you" full-text search, but if it's technically possible and if clients implement it then it's essentially the same thing.

ricardobeat 14y ago
> encrypt it and upload it if the index is encrypted with a local key you'll need to hand over it all the same to use it online...
- repsilat 14y ago
  You never hand over the key - you decrypt the index on the client-side when you want to search.
  - ricardobeat 14y ago
    That's local search, not online. If you're syncing folders then spotlight/whatever already works locally.
    - repsilat 14y ago
      You don't need to sync folders for this to work, though. When you search your data you still leave all of it "in the cloud", you just download a few relevant bits of the index database. As far as the user is concerned this provides efficient full-text search without heavy bandwidth or storage requirements and without giving the storage provider access to any plaintext. Maybe this is still a "local" solution by your definition, but who cares? How does it fall short of an "online" one?
      - ricardobeat 14y ago
        It falls short simply by not being online and requiring an app. Though it might be possible to do the decryption in javascript, I hadn't thought of that.
        repsilat 14y ago
        To each their own. For anything I'd want to encrypt I wouldn't trust a closed app or a web interface. It's just too easy for them to get private data across the wire. If I'm blindly running the Javascript they send me I might as well give them the key and be done with it. My "best case" solution is a dumb protocol, a FUSE mount and maybe a local webserver for sharing, configuration and metadata. I don't really understand wanting to access files through anything but a filesystem (regardless of where they're actually stored), but I can accept that some people might.

ricardobeat 14y ago

> encrypt it and upload it if the index is encrypted with a local key you'll need to hand over it all the same to use it online...

repsilat 14y ago
You never hand over the key - you decrypt the index on the client-side when you want to search.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  That's local search, not online. If you're syncing folders then spotlight/whatever already works locally.
  - repsilat 14y ago
    You don't need to sync folders for this to work, though. When you search your data you still leave all of it "in the cloud", you just download a few relevant bits of the index database. As far as the user is concerned this provides efficient full-text search without heavy bandwidth or storage requirements and without giving the storage provider access to any plaintext. Maybe this is still a "local" solution by your definition, but who cares? How does it fall short of an "online" one?
    - ricardobeat 14y ago
      It falls short simply by not being online and requiring an app. Though it might be possible to do the decryption in javascript, I hadn't thought of that.
      - repsilat 14y ago
        To each their own. For anything I'd want to encrypt I wouldn't trust a closed app or a web interface. It's just too easy for them to get private data across the wire. If I'm blindly running the Javascript they send me I might as well give them the key and be done with it. My "best case" solution is a dumb protocol, a FUSE mount and maybe a local webserver for sharing, configuration and metadata. I don't really understand wanting to access files through anything but a filesystem (regardless of where they're actually stored), but I can accept that some people might.