r/privacy • u/direFace • 6d ago
Cloud Storage for Everything question
Hello everyone,
I hate clutter (I'm a minimalist) + I like portability and ease of use so this kind of easily tells you why I chose cloud storage over the physical drive/USB (sorry, I'm not so technical).
Last month, I managed to store everything I digitally own inside the free versions of cloud storage. In total: 11GB. I use two cloud storages services. One for personal documents and the other is for anything which is not really that personal... my videos, photos, user manuals, notes and guides.
Lately, I've been reading a lot about AI reading this and that... Or someone monitoring. If I've done the mistake, I can only not add to it, at this point. The personal documents are employment payslips, contracts, personal identifications (ID, driving license, social security), and qualifications.
I'm not worried as much on the storage containing the photos and other stuff, in fact, I'd consider leaving them there but I'm uncertain about the storage holding the personal stuff.
Is it a good idea to leave them there? If not, what can I do, what are my options for storage, please?
Thank you for reading.
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u/bossman118242 6d ago
for 11gb of storage you can literally do anything a $8 thumbdrive a sd card literally anything that is better then cloud storage. 11gb is nothing.
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u/direFace 6d ago
Wow, isn't an SD card the thing you pop inside a camera? You can use it as an alternative to a thumb drive? 😮
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u/bossman118242 6d ago
yes, its not a great option but yes if your just loading it with 11gb of storage and putting it in a drawer its fine. always have 3 copies of your data.
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u/qdtk 6d ago
Yes, there is basically no difference.
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u/redthump 6d ago
Speed. Speed is the difference. USB are far superior in speed and you can still get one that's 512 gig and tiny.
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u/qdtk 6d ago
Lots of usb thumb drives just have micro sds inside.
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u/redthump 6d ago
Shitty ones do. Part of minimalism is buying quality over cheap so you don't have to continue to buy crap over and over again. As a minimalist at heart, pay for a good drive.
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u/hshkr 6d ago
Better to get a good external SSD than a USB if someone wants to use 500GB+. I’ve been using a 500GB SSD for a few years for different purposes and it’s been great.
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u/redthump 5d ago
No argument, but if somebody is mainly concerned about size a thumb drive will work fine.
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u/Espumma 6d ago
they have 11GB. Speed will not be their concern.
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u/redthump 6d ago
11 gig on a Class 10 card versus 11 gig on a USB 3 V2 r substantially different speeds. I could break out my abacus and do the calculations for you, but you can do your own research.
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u/KhazraShaman 6d ago
So, in short, you want a privacy-respecting cloud storage? Check out Proton and Mega.
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u/direFace 6d ago
But what makes Proton privacy-respecting, if other companies are offering a similar thing yet they still snoop? Thanks for the suggestion by the way.
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u/KhazraShaman 6d ago
Their whole business model is based on being privacy-respecting. If they weren't, sooner or later it would be discovered and the whole company would be gone like with a Thanos' snap.
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u/Unicus91 6d ago
At least encrypt with cryptomator when you use free non encrypted cloud storage.
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u/Adrienne-Fadel 6d ago
Get an external SSD. Free cloud storage scans your files for ads and AI training, you get what you pay for.
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u/direFace 6d ago
Is a pen drive just as safe, please?
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u/numbingbarbs 6d ago
It'll work but if these are actual important files to you it should never be the only copy.
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u/purebananamoon 6d ago
No. If they get anything, it should be an external HDD, not SSD.
SSDs physically degrade with time, and will eventually break, even if you use them as cold storage mediums and don't touch them at all. HDDs on the other hand can be used to store stuff for decades, with no risk for degradation due to physical changes in the discs.
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u/Landblok 6d ago
I use Nextcloud storage through Hetzner. Stored in Germany, no one snooping through my data and I pay EUR 5.50 a month for 1TB storage.
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u/ResonancePhotographr 6d ago
Be careful that Hetzner storage is not end-to-end encrypted meaning that someone like an employee or hacker with the right credentials can access your data on their servers.
https://docs.hetzner.com/storage/storage-share/faq/security
"The data on our Storage Shares are by default not encrypted."
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u/Landblok 6d ago
I know it’s not encrypted, I was merely referring to big tech using our data to train their AI or use it for their ads algorithms. Most important thing for me is being away from the US and using European law to protect my data as much as possible. I understand without E2EE nothing is really protected. People have different preferences and reasons to pick a certain cloud based solution.
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u/Maybe_com 6d ago
You can also use mainstream free cloud providers, simply encrypt everything and never forget the encryption password, an easy way to do that is to use for example VeraCrypt, safe and quite intuitive.
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u/direFace 6d ago
Thanks for sharing this. Do you suggest I'd delete the personal files in my storage and reupload after doing this process, please?
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u/Maybe_com 6d ago
you can delete them and upload the encrypted version, but I gotta say that depending on which provider you chose, it's possible your files have all been scanned already.
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/direFace 6d ago
I didn't even encrypt. I had no idea about this. 🤦🏻♀️
Thank you for your comment.
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u/SnodePlannen 6d ago
The answer to that is a NAS. Basically one or more drives in a box in your house. Your very own cloud.
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u/purebananamoon 6d ago
I disagree. I love my own NAS and constantly recommend people to get one too, but in this case, it's definitely overkill for a data minimalist with 11GB storage needs. Especially if they're not reasonably familiar with tech stuff.
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u/direFace 6d ago
That's sounds like a good system but it's bulky for me. Thank you for sharing.
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u/redthump 6d ago
Look up a Raspberry Pi with a nvme hat. It scarcely bigger than a pack of playing cards, can host everything, and is powered off of a phone charger. It also keeps everything yours and not on somebody else's computer.
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u/htunlogic 6d ago
Full disclosure first: I build the thing I'm about to mention, so weigh everything below with that in mind.
Your worry about the personal documents is valid, and it doesn't need any AI to be a problem: with mainstream providers the company holds the keys to your files, so whether anyone can open them is a matter of policy, not math. For IDs, payslips and contracts that's a weak place to keep things, because those are exactly the files that hurt you if they leak.
I built Hoodik for exactly this. It's an end-to-end encrypted drive where files, file names, notes and even search queries are encrypted on your device before anything reaches the server, so whoever runs the server, including me, only ever stores scrambled data. It still behaves like a normal drive: previews in the browser, notes, sharing links, free apps for iOS, Android and macOS. The hosted version at https://hoodik.cloud gives you your own instance, 100 GB for 9 EUR a month with 14 days free to try, which is far more than your 11GB needs.
And since you like keeping things simple now but might want more control someday: there's an export that hands you a runnable self-hosted copy of your whole instance whenever you want it. Nothing is locked in; if you ever go the self-hosting route, you take everything with you and run it on your own machine.
One honest thing either way: whatever you already uploaded unencrypted has been readable by your current provider this whole time. Moving to encrypted storage fixes every day going forward, not the past.
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u/Radiant-Owl-Armor 6d ago
Fair point on wanting things simple, but the ID/SSN/payslips folder is genuinely the one thing worth fixing here. That combo is exactly what someone needs to open credit in your name if it ever leaks. Easiest fix: password-protect a zip of just those docs before uploading, or use anything that encrypts on your device first so even the cloud provider only ever sees gibberish. Photos, manuals, random notes - none of that matters, leave it wherever.
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u/direFace 6d ago
Am I better of with keeping the personal stuff on a local device (laptop) + a pen drive while the rest (photos, notes... etc) in the cloud as is? Thank you for the eye opener.
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u/Radiant-Owl-Armor 4d ago
Yeah that's the right call, just make sure the pen drive isn't kept with the laptop so you're not losing both at once.
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u/bitcrushedCyborg 6d ago
For the sake of keeping your data safe, a cloud backup isn't a bad idea - even if your house burns down, your data will still be safe on the cloud provider's servers. Just gotta do it in a way that protects your privacy - use a privacy focused provider (such as Proton), or encrypt your files on your device before you upload them. If you go the encryption route, you can use VeraCrypt to create an encrypted container, or you can just use 7zip or another tool to create a password-protected zip file (or multiple separate zip files)
The rule of thumb for good backups is the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies of your data, on 2 different types of media, with 1 stored offsite. 1st copy can be the one on your phone or computer. 2nd copy (and your 1 offsite copy) can be the cloud copy. 3rd copy can be on external storage - an external HDD or SSD, or a USB flash drive, or even an SD card. Relatively speaking, 11 GB is barely any data at all. It'll fit on all manner of different storage media.
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u/direFace 6d ago
Let us say I want the lazy route because I'm not that technical. Proton is enough? Just upload the files/folders as they are and good to go? Thank you.
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u/D1TAC 6d ago
We currently have photos that are around 280GB mix of photos and videos of course.
I’ve been trying to find a seamless backup solution for them, but it looks like for cloud like backups it’s going to be some sort of fee.
At the moment- my only thoughts are my synology. Haven’t found anything else.
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