Personal data storage and "clouds"

[SmokeAndMirrors]

Originally Posted by Quexos

Yeah right I'm gonna trust some website with personal data. please tell me where I can send my address, credit card info, bank account info, voting preferences and so on, on some website run by people whose Identities or faces I ignore. And I take what ? their word that they will keep this private.

Big Brother is watching you guys, shame on it, but you willingly giving in to that, shame on you.

Edit: on the Dropbox website, it seems you have to download an application to your computer so that the info on your computer can be sent to the cloud. They call it an application, I call it a Trojan ...

That really depends on how you use it.

You can actually get a Dropbox account without downloading it. It is somewhat easier if you download it, because you have access to the folder when you're offline. But you don't have to. If you click "login" in the upper left, then "create an account," you don't have to download anything. You can just use it online only if you want.

I agree with putting personal data on there. If absolutely nothing else, Dropbox is still obligated, like any other site, to turn over your account to the gov if requested. And that's if nothing else. They say they don't allow employs access to your files, but who knows whether that's true in practice.

That said, how good or bad a given service is partly depends on how you decide to use it. Cloud services exist because they are useful. If you use it in a naive way, well... that doesn't change the fact. I like useful things. I also like privacy. I can do both at the same time by being a smart internet user.

If you put your personal data on a cloud service and expect no one to ever look through it, or for it to not possibly bite you in the ass someday, you're naive. Not only do you run the risk of losing privacy, you also run the risk of losing your data.

But do I worry about someone seeing my articles, which are posted online, or my poli sci essay on agriculture, which I sent to my professor through the school website? No. I worry about it even less because I have offline backups as well. It makes my work and school life easier.

I'm not naive enough to put anything in my Dropbox that I would mind someone else seeing. In most cases, it's something they're supposed to see. And what isn't is probably stuff no one cares about anyway - lecture notes and the like. Using it that way, the cloud is useful for me and poses no risk to my privacy.

[SmokeAndMirrors]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I've been using Dropbox for a couple of years and totally missed the double referral bonus for edu accounts. I just changed my dropbox account to my University email account and my free space jumped from 10.25 gigs to 18.25 gigs.

Karma to you!

Hmmm... this didn't work for me?

I got a free account (2gb), completed a bunch of steps, got another 250mb, and have had one person referred through me which is another 250mb, so 2.5gb total.

I just changed my email to my university email... and it still says my total space available is 2.5gb. Am I missing something?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by SmokeAndMirrors

Hmmm... this didn't work for me?

I got a free account (2gb), completed a bunch of steps, got another 250mb, and have had one person referred through me which is about 250mb, so 2.5gb total.

I just changed my email to my university email... and it still says my total space available is 2.5gb. Am I missing something?

I believe I had to jump through this link to verify my edu address. You will get a email at your edu account. When you reply to this email the 1 referral you have should change from 250 to 500 so you would see your account change from 2.5gb to 2.75gb after verification.

I had 8gb of referrals so mine increased by 8gb.

Added the step to my previous post.

[SmokeAndMirrors]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I believe I had to jump through this link to verify my edu address. You will get a email at you edu account. When you reply to this email the 1 referral you have should change from 250 to 500 so you would see your account change from 2.5gb to 2.75gb after verification.

I had 8gb of referrals so mine increased by 8gb.

Added the step to my previous post.

Yay! I now have 2.75gb.

Karma for you!

It's Christmas on the internet.

[tofubean]

I use three daily.

I use dropbox for my calibre library.
I use icloud for my iphone and ipad backup. (quite new... but it's alright so far)
I use google for syncing of my contacts, calendar and mail.

I use my trusty external storage hd to backup all of the above.

[tubemonkey]

My cloud is a mSD card. So really, I have no need for clouds.

[Phogg]

[Andrew H.]

I use dropbox a lot, but, as others have noted, it's not so much cloud storage as cloud syncing. It's a good way to keep documents available between my work computer, home computer, netbook, iphone, and ipad. I also have a shared folder with my gf that we use *a lot* - often while in the same room.

I use an external HD for backup, but I also use CrashPlan, an online backup service basically like Mozy or Carbonite. I don't entirely trust it, but I trust it much more than I do HDs, several of which I've had fail on me. So I use both. It's nice that CrashPlan is offsite, too.

I have 400+ GBs on CrashPlan, which took weeks to upload.

[wodin]

I use Dropbox, Carbonite, and a home NAS/Personal Cloud called TonidoPlug. I use Dropbox mostly because of its most excellent UI. If the TonidoPlug UI wasn't so clugy and hard to use, I'd be using it exclusively as that way I'd not have to store my stuff on someone else’s servers.

Carbonite was recently a life saver, a set it and forget it automatic off site backup solution. My PC died and had to be replaced. I just pointed the new PC at my Carbonite account, and a few hours later all my stuff was back, and up to date.

[Viseguy]

I use Dropbox to sync key files among all my computers. For backup I use an external hard drive connected to a Pogoplug, which makes the drive accessible from any Internet-connected device.

[pagansoul]

I don't use just one service. First, I have my own copies at home on both portable HDs, DVD rips and my MacPro (2TB x 4 HDbays). I have on Amazon the unlimited music for $20 a year but have not loaded all my music yet. I have over 200GB of music files on my computer, mostly ripped off my (and my brothers) CD collection. When music match is started in iTunes I'll also do that for $20 a year. I currently use Dropbox's 5GB for some of my book collection (all of my ebooks are on DVD) and Amazon has a few hundred on their Kindle files. I've given copies of family pictures to all my relatives (took me 2 years to collect everyones photos and scan them). Another program/site I use is Evernote. I keep my lists (ebooks, DVDs, comics and Blu-rays) and passwords on this App. Updates to my Apple devices.

[Nexutix]

Just reopened this thread after a month to post this.

AS many people say here, backup services DO come and go like a breeze. Thanks to MR, I didn't store any data on there.

Spoiler:

[CyGuy]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

My cloud is a mSD card. So really, I have no need for clouds.

X2

SDHC is the way to go for me too.

[Sydney's Mom]

I've given up on Clouds. Ran out of space on Dropbox. Tried to cut up my library and only saved the most recent stuff, but that was a mess. I though about uploading Calibre to the Amazon cloud, but there are some library books in my library, and I don't know what kind of metadata might be discoverable. So I am back to plain old backups.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Nexutix

Just reopened this thread after a month to post this.

AS many people say here, backup services DO come and go like a breeze. Thanks to MR, I didn't store any data on there.

Spoiler:

Well that just swell. Not really the comment I wanted to make, but as a moderator, if I spoke my mind on how I feel about companies doing that I'd have to ban myself.