Storage forum: Poll: Would you trust an online backup service with your data?

1. Companies come and go. When they go, so might your data
2. Security. What data does one have worth keeping off site that is worth possibly being compromised. Even family photos might be valuable to some pervert. Have we found anything hacker proof yet?
3. Security again. Could it happen that your service provider could have their servers confiscated if illegal activity was being conducted or some jerk stored his child porn there? Naah..never in a million years. "Hey, I need my financial data to do my taxes or I'm going to jail."... "Sorry...it's in police custody for the next few years".
4. Security again. Someone other than myself will have access to my data no matter what I'm promised. That's not a happy thought.
5. Costs me money. I'd rather spend it on backup hardware.

Ok, short list for now...Basically, I'm not that trusting.

I aggree - security is biggest issue. if the fbi gets hacked
why not some guy with a server selling space ? ?
if you want BIG security, copy to an external drive. or in my
case, I plug in a 4th HD - copy and unplug.
Copy this backup HD to another one and put in a bank security
box ! !
you also now have a place to put private papers and last I heard
it was tax deductable. (been a while since I had to pay taxes LOL )

Service like Mozy allow you to encrypt your data with your own key. And for now and for sometime this is pretty hack proof (as long as you use a long password to generate the key). That will prevent them or the Feds from see your data.

""Hey, I need my financial data to do my taxes or I'm going to jail."... "Sorry...it's in police custody for the next few years"."
If what's online is your only copy. That isn't a backup. You should have at least two more local copies on different drives.

"1. Companies come and go. When they go, so might your data"
When they go you just move on to the next company. Again you don't keep your only copies on line. Also there are a few companies that have been around for years and show no sign of going away.

Steven.. Thanks, you saved me a lot of typing .. and said pretty much exactly what I would say about off-site Storage or backup of my data.. yes, I do store some stuff "in the cloud" (I HATE that term).. but it is on my own, Private FTP server, NOT with some commercial entity..

Tech companies get bought and sold more often than people change their underwear.. I would NEVER trust ANY of these third-party "back-up your computer on our servers" outfits with any of my data, my email, my photos, documents, or any other sensitive, personal files..

Put another way.. imagine you're going on a trip.. would you hand the key to your home to someone you don't know who says "Trust me, I'll take in the papers and mail, and water your plants and yadda yadda"? Hardly.. well, backing up your computer to some company's server, just because they have a "Privacy Policy" that tries to make you feel all warm and fuzzy and secure about it is no different.. they could be bought out tomorrow by some other outfit.. and who knows where your data is gonna end up, sniffed and snooped by who knows who for whatever reason, privacy policies notwithstanding.. as far as I'm concerned, they're written in pencil and are meaningless..

You can get a 1 tb external hard drive for about $75.00 these days..

So call me paranoid.. I've been called worse, but I'm not going to use any online back-up service over whom I have NO control for every reason you listed, and a bunch more I could think of..

I tried it once before only to find out the storage website was totally corrupt at stealing customers original works by 1) Making sure the upload process and access to the uploads would continuously work faulty with numerous glitches from the get-go in order to frustrate paying customers into going away and never coming back, 2) Blocking access to any and all uploaded important files they possessed that could seemed of monetary value such as an unfinished draft of a book, 3) Hidden web bugs on every webpage of their website, 4) They also hacked into my computer and within two minutes of my starting a private email to an acquaintance the storage website emailed me to ask if I wanted to upload the email onto the their website, I ignored their email but wondered how in the heck could they know I had just started an email and they named the email by its subject title, then a few minutes later they emailed another request asking me again to upload that specific unfinished email to their storage website, 5) They refused to respond to over a dozen polite online website messages and emails asking for assistance to fix the problems particularly with the most important files I had uploaded onto their website, that is, until I finally tested them by sending them a short but extremely angry message and within two minutes they responded by saying theyre closing my account because of my use of profanity and then they blocked my access altogether while keeping the draft of my book which I had uploaded onto their website. Beware of ProtectMyWork,com for they are as corrupt as they come. In summary, unimportant files is okay but otherwise anything of importance is NOT SAFE when placed into the possessions of strangers online whom one does not know personally.
Tsark out.

To be accurate, I just remembered I had actually tried two different storage websites a few years ago, one was a free service and the other was purchased. It was the free service which I had uploaded original draft songs to Supload,com but failed to get access to my uploads from the get-go and for several days I failed to get any response to help fix the glitches so then I tracked down the owner who at first ignored my email but days later after I sent it again I finally got an email response from his partner-in-crime who tried to twist everything around by changing the subject in typical criminal mentality fashion so then I accused them outright of stealing peoples works and within a couple of hours I was hit with a very significant increase in spam. Ive accused at least several different other criminal websites of various natures and nearly all of them ended up retaliating by significantly increasing my spam within hours as if right on cue. After Supload,com is when I decided to try a paying service only to discover ProtectMyWork,com was also corrupt at ignoring any requests to close the account and I had to file a formal complaint with numerous authoritative agencies before eventually getting a full refund. One of my last resort remedies is to file an Internet Fraudulent Transaction with my bank which has never failed in getting back my full refunds pronto because criminals want to avoid a criminal investigation by state and federal authoritative agencies who are connected with the bank. Unfortunately the Internet is a bottomless gold mine for stupid criminal enterprise. By stupid I mean in the sense we all have only one chance at life to live and its rather stupid to go through life trying to make this world a worse place to live in and although there are experienced criminals I conclude there are no such things as intelligent criminals. I tested two online storage websites and learned to NEVER bother wasting anymore of my valuable time as I dont believe any of them can be trusted because theres simply way too much money to be made in criminal enterprise. After ten years of computer experience Ive learned the hard way our Internet is infested with criminals much more than people normally suspect. When you said the list is too many to count I knew exactly what you mean because it really is. Troubleshooting suspected criminal activity is sometimes like a part-time hobby for me and I concur no storage website can be trusted and my common sanity tells me they all give in to the enormous profit gained through criminal intent compared to legitimate means especially when it comes to selling private information, that is, why settle for hundreds honestly when thousands or more can be made criminally while the risk of getting caught is practically nil? If all followed your lead in this and NEVER trusted a storage website then the crime rate would surely drop to some degree.
Tsark out.

I am sure there are good online backup programs. Why would anyone pay a monthly fee when it is not that difficult to just back up files to a CD or DVD??

carol

Well you are correct, that is a lot of data and if the data is always changing that to is difficult. You have to pick your method of madness if you have things important enough for storage. I use a tape drive on my own server at home that backs up my data on a daily basis (as it changes), however if my house burns down or gets flooded I'm lost again, but then again all my paper records are lost too if my fireproof safe doesn't work. If you have enough data that needs backup then MORE than one plan is a Necessity. I don't trust on line backups period. The only solution for me therefore is to take my data to a safe deposit box once a month or week.. Yea right. But anybody that needs it should really consider more than one method of storage.

Have used sugarsync for some 6 months and am satisified. Took some time to upload 15gig on 5 computers but once up and running have had little trouble. There was a few days of problems experienced by all about 4 months ago but they resolved the issue and have been running fine since.

I would think that the number one reason for not using an online backup service is as Steven said above: Companies come....companies go. When they go....so does your data. With something of this importance, I will never trust anyone other than myself.....and even then I'm kinda leery of that. :))

Sony ImageStation went away a couple of years ago.. I was using a VERY expesnive Mavica at the time, (saves to floppy discs).. and had uploaded MANY photo albums to Sony ImageStation, which was free.. I copied the floppies to a hard drive, or at least I thought I did, and then re-used the floppies..

Then Sony decided to pull the plug on ImageStation.. it was similar to Shutterfly, Kodak Gallery, and lots of similar, current photo sharing / storing / printing sites..

Sony DID give a few weeks' warning that "we're shutting down Sony PhotoStation, so if you want to save your albums, log-in and download them"..

Well, as John Lennon said, just when you're making other plans, life gets in the way.. I put it off and put it off and forgot about it, and then, by the time I remembered their cut-off date, I logged in and poof, everything was gone.. Sony ImageStation had erased everything.. nothing was transferred to some other outfit.. it was just wiped clean.. I lost all those photos, since I had re-used the floppy discs, and couldn't find them.. they might still be on one of my old old computers, maybe, possibly, perhaps.. but if a company the size of Sony can just pull the plug and wipe out everything..

Sure, I'm partially to blame for procrastinating and not downloading my photo albums before they took PhotoStation out behind the barn and put a bullet through its head.. modern life is complicated enough what with everything one has to remember..

Why did they shut it down?.. Why didn't they hand off the photos to another, similar online service?.. They never explained, and I could never find out whom to contact at Sony to find out..

I thought ahha! Maybe archive.org's wayback machine has a copy of ImageStation.. well, it does and it doesn't.. it has archives of the site, but not user-uploaded photos or albums..

With just a little discipline, it's more cost effective to backup yourself. For the price of an on-line service for a year, one can about acquire a USB hard drive for backup purposes. It helps if one has developed a discipline in how original files are stored. In my case, "My Documents" is the critical folder containing all priceless business documents. It gets backed up every weekend. Using it to restore files is a breeze and one doesn't have to be concerned about security over a public network.

A backup service offers one advantage; off-site storage of critical files in case of fire or theft. If this were a major concern for me, then I wouldn't hesitate to go for an on-line service.

One backup I highly recommend comes when one buys a new computer. Get a second hard-drive or other storage and IMMEDIATELY CLONE the original drive and store the backup. Most new internal drives come with cloning software. It creates a backup disk that can restore your operating system with ease. The utility restoration discs that came with my last desktop DO NOT WORK. A clone works every time.

Never. I wouldn't put that data on an external drive, then
take it with me, walk down the street, and hand it to the
third stranger I happened to encounter--so why do the cyberspace
equivalent, and hand over your data to someone you've never even
seen, and wouldn't know how to contact if he shut his website
down?

Far smarter, and safer, to take your data and give it to a
randomly-selected homeless person. At least then you would
not only know what the guy holding your data looks like,
but also you know at least one place where you might find him,
if you have to.

And yes, the increased possibility that the government, or some
agency thereof, will seize your data is also something to think
about very seriously. Remember how easy it was for the government
to set up its "Carnivore" project, so that every email you send
or receive can be grabbed by the government with no due process
issues whatsoever?

Face it, people--if you have a firewall protecting your computer,
and/or security of whatever kind protecting your home network,
did you ever wonder WHY you thought those were good things to
have? Before you send all your data to strangers who have no
reason to care about you, why not just take down your home
network security, delete whatever firewalls you have, and put
a message to the whole world, on your Facebook page, telling
all the government and private-enterprise hackers in the world,
"Come and get it!"? That would be far cheaper than paying some
stranger to store your data on his servers, and not the smallest
bit more stupid, either.

No reason to "trust" such a service. One, I have no requirement for such a service particularly given the very affordable price of backup/removable storage devices. Storage devices the size of a PDA easily fit in my laptop bag (if I need to carry more data than my laptop can hold or require backup for critical data). And I just don't like the idea of my personal or professional data on a server I don't control. Call me old fashioned, but this idea just has no appeal to me whatsoever.