I agree with Wozniak on this one.
Ah the Cloud. Love or hate it, it is going to be with us for some time. Rather, the term is new, but the idea is old.
I do not fear the Cloud. Several of my employers do to some extent. I use Dropbox and everything I put in my Dropbox is also stored on my computer. So if DB dies, I do not lose anything. Should there be a problem, I can recover files from my cache folder or recover past revisions using Dropbox/PackRat.
But that assumes there are no catastrophic issues with Dropbox. Fortunately, they back up their servers across several server farms using Amazon S3. And because the files I upload to Dropbox stay on my computer, losing files is not a concern.
I use Dropbox For Teams, so I have a full Terabyte of storage. As of today, I have 104 MB of files stored, so I have room to grow.
I keep some financial info on Dropbox but I also use TrueCrypt. This is quite secure. I use a password like "3D45VB7UYOP" so guessing my password is not likely. I also use a specific Windows file as part of my protection so even if you guessed my password, without the file you can't (easily) hack my files.
From the 'Did You Know that' department. Dropbox keeps only one copy of any file on their servers. If 5000 people upload the same eBook, only one copy is kept on their servers and each of those 5000 users is served the same copy.
Dropbox did have a problem with people uploading special hacked files that would appear to Dropbox as legitimate files. So you could upload a fake file and DL the aforementioned book. Or movies or music.
Dropbox put a stop to that some time ago.
Perhaps you Dropbox users might have wondered why a 500 MB file seems to upload almost instantly while a 1 MB file takes a little time to sync? This is because some other user is storing the exact same file in their Dropbox.
Dropbox is also a place to keep illegal content for sharing, but as soon as thousands of people try to access the files, DB is very good at killing your links. Yesterday, I followed a link to a file posted on this forum and the link was killed due to vast numbers of folks trying to access the file.
I like the cloud because (with Dropbox, anyway) I can do many spectacular things. For example, I can upload music, stills, video, text files and Word documents to one Dropbox folder and the automation programs I use will automatically move the files into separate folders by file types.
I can upload a file with my brother's name appended to the image file name and DB/Automation will automatically email the file to my brother after automation reduces the file size. Everything goes into one folder.
But those are advanced techniques that have nothing to do with Woz and his comments, so I'll return to the regularly scheduled thread.
Woz was rather general when he (apparently) made the comment that the files you upload to "the Cloud" are no longer yours; that they belong to the service provider. I do not think even Apple makes that claim with iCloud. To be fair, I stopped reading their TOS, so perhaps they do.
No, I'll say it, Apple does not make that claim and Woz should have perhaps done his research.
Just because 'The Woz' said it, does not make it accurate. I am not sure it was ever the case because as someone posted, we would hear about it. I am not saying some service did NOT make that claim; it seems to me someone did, some time ago.
Just saying it is not true in every case and with every Cloud services provider.
I still use Flash Drives and MicroSD Cards to hold files because I am not always guaranteed a connection to the Internet. I backup those drives and cards to my Dropbox.
We need to live with the Cloud and see what eventual issues arise. Just do not let the experiences of a few people paint a dim picture of Cloud storage. We do have some prior experiences to use as a guide: Banks tell us our data is safe but still, some banks are hacked. We have used The Cloud forever, so it is not new, and every time we have a problem, we are told it was an isolated incident, yet it happens again. And yes, even Dropbox will be hacked, as will other cloud services.
If you want absolute safety, do not connect to the Internet and keep all files off these servers. We are told we are safe. We know better. My work laptop is 100% secure, guaranteed. No known way to hack my laptop computer. That is because it never sees a net connection or email account.
We will always have security issues and concerns and a few bad experiences will try to convince us that there is a serious issue with the cloud in general. But those are the experiences of a few people that represent a tiny fraction of the user base and repeated endlessly over the net.
I found a consultancy job with a local law firm to teach their staff how to properly use Dropbox. Their big concern was hackers and how to deal with legal case documents getting out there. I can see their point. For them, DB is as safe as it can be but not guaranteed because that is impossible
Cloud storage services can be handy and safe if you use them properly.
