Bottom line - you should assume that you cannot trust ANY cloud-based service to keep what you upload safe from hackers (if they're determined enough), and especially from governments. I'm not sure why anyone would be under the illusion that this is the case. Even assuming that hosting such a service would be legally possible today (not sure if it is, IANAL), it could be illegal tomorrow and the service may be compelled to hand over any data.
If you want something to stay secret you MUST either:
a. Not put it on the internet/cloud.
b. Encrypt it yourself before uploading. Yes, there are trust issues with commodity encryption software as well, but these may be mitigated somewhat.
This really isn't an issue for legitimate users backing up or syncing original data. If you are paranoid about privacy, then you are probably doing something wrong. If for some reason some other user produces the same file that I have, then whats the big deal? They already arrived at that information themselves, so there is still no compromise of data. Of course the government can seize your data whether it is online or not. Don't sync copyrighted material. How many different ways do they have to tell you it's illegal?
"If you are paranoid about privacy, then you are probably doing something wrong."
That's a pretty slippery slope to presume that a desire for privacy is tantamount to an admission of guilt. Why would you presume that simply because I have information I want to keep secret, I must be doing something wrong?
Conversely, is it ok if we install webcams throughout your house, since apparently you have nothing you'd like to keep private for non-criminal reasons?
In this instance we are talking about data that is already encrypted. Now tell me why anyone would worry about their encrypted data being identifiable unless it's not their data. Not something I have to worry about and suspect majority of users don't need to worry about this either.
For the same reason lots of folks may not want their Netflix queue or Amazon purchase list put out in the public. Or their library lending list. All of those are lists of legal, publicly-available items, but that doesn't mean folks might not want and expect privacy when it comes to others knowing what content they are consuming / collecting, regardless of its legality.
> Don't sync copyrighted material. How many different ways do they have to tell you it's illegal?
I don't thing it is illegal though, is it? If I want to sync a bunch of music files that I purchased because I want to back them up, or access them from multiple computers, but I don't make those publicly available, is that illegal?
Genuinely curious, as I've been thinking about doing exactly this recently.
Comments
Bottom line - you should assume that you cannot trust ANY cloud-based service to keep what you upload safe from hackers (if they're determined enough), and especially from governments. I'm not sure why anyone would be under the illusion that this is the case. Even assuming that hosting such a service would be legally possible today (not sure if it is, IANAL), it could be illegal tomorrow and the service may be compelled to hand over any data.
If you want something to stay secret you MUST either:
a. Not put it on the internet/cloud.
b. Encrypt it yourself before uploading. Yes, there are trust issues with commodity encryption software as well, but these may be mitigated somewhat.
A properly designed cloud service could preserve the user's security. But I agree, trusting others to do that is a bit of a stretch.
This seems like a good time to plug tarsnap (happy user), which was specifically designed to address such concerns.
This really isn't an issue for legitimate users backing up or syncing original data. If you are paranoid about privacy, then you are probably doing something wrong. If for some reason some other user produces the same file that I have, then whats the big deal? They already arrived at that information themselves, so there is still no compromise of data. Of course the government can seize your data whether it is online or not. Don't sync copyrighted material. How many different ways do they have to tell you it's illegal?
"If you are paranoid about privacy, then you are probably doing something wrong."
That's a pretty slippery slope to presume that a desire for privacy is tantamount to an admission of guilt. Why would you presume that simply because I have information I want to keep secret, I must be doing something wrong?
Conversely, is it ok if we install webcams throughout your house, since apparently you have nothing you'd like to keep private for non-criminal reasons?
In this instance we are talking about data that is already encrypted. Now tell me why anyone would worry about their encrypted data being identifiable unless it's not their data. Not something I have to worry about and suspect majority of users don't need to worry about this either.
For the same reason lots of folks may not want their Netflix queue or Amazon purchase list put out in the public. Or their library lending list. All of those are lists of legal, publicly-available items, but that doesn't mean folks might not want and expect privacy when it comes to others knowing what content they are consuming / collecting, regardless of its legality.
> Don't sync copyrighted material. How many different ways do they have to tell you it's illegal?
I don't thing it is illegal though, is it? If I want to sync a bunch of music files that I purchased because I want to back them up, or access them from multiple computers, but I don't make those publicly available, is that illegal?
Genuinely curious, as I've been thinking about doing exactly this recently.