digistil: Well, they already said (gizmodo, i think) they plan to use things like your pics as embeds in ads (Facebook is already doing this).

If they're doing the same thing Facebook does, there's absolutely no reason to fear. Facebook is taking information that's already visible to your account and displaying it next to an ad. They're not showing it to anybody who wouldn't have otherwise been able to access it.

So, under that model, Google would likely be taking your data and showing it back to you and you alone in an ad. The horror!
Unless of course you elected to share that file with some of your friends, at which point they might see it again in an ad. Catastrophic!

All they need is one good press release wherein they caught a pedo because of this service and the livestock will all be, "If you have nothing incriminating, you have nothing to worry about! Children are our future! What are you hiding? 9/11!".

And yes, your bank information is on another service, of course it is. But it's in their best interest to keep that information as secure as possible and that's a priority. Here not so much.

Doctor Jan Itor: It sounds like the data isn't actually encrypted, otherwise how would they have any access to it?

I'm sure they use the finest and most secure ROT13 algorithm available for encryption.

miscreant: Doctor Jan Itor: It sounds like the data isn't actually encrypted, otherwise how would they have any access to it? You could just create a TrueCrypt partition file and put that in the cloud.

You could, but kind of a pain in the ass to have to sync a huge TrueCrypt partition every time you change a 1KB document inside it.

They should be smart enough to only transfer the modified blocks, but a quick google search tells me that Dropbox has some problems with that.
Of course you don't need to put all your sensitive 1KB files in a giant TrueCrypt partition when there are plenty of other encryption schemes that would just encrypt the contents of a single file. Or hell, a 1.1KB TrueCrypt partition would hold that thing just fine.

Also, Carbonite allows you to configure their client to do the encryption with a key that only you keep. Standard paranoia rules apply as to whether or not a backdoor in the client is secretly sending that key to the NSA anyhow, though.

As a modern man on the go, I appreciate the convenience of giving all my personal information to a soulless corporation in a single shot, unlike "those other guys" who make you upload it one picture at a time. Who has time for that?

bulldg4life: Also, I'm impressed that people confidently state that USB external HDs are good enough for backup.

That is incredibly secure and safe...what with it being right next to the computer that you are attempting to back up.

Stick it in a $45 fire safe. You should have something like that anyway for your important papers. If that doesn't provide enough protection, then you've got more serious problems then having lost some data*. Most people aren't like a business: You can carry on functioning without pretty much all electronic data you've stored. Would it be more inconvenient? Sure, but it wouldn't likely result in the problems it would cause for a business*. That's why personal back-ups don't need to meet the stringent requirements that many businesses need to meet.

Another option would be for the really, really, *REALLY* important stuff, keep it on a thumb drive with you at all times. That way you'll always have it if necessary, it can easily be transferred to a new computer if necessary, and since those things are damn near indestructible, if it is damaged bad enough that you can't get data from it, you're likely to be dead anyway.

*Unless, of course, you run your own business, but I would submit that if that is the case, you should treat your business like a business.

When i moved out of the country a few years ago I took two terabytes of data with me.

When you cut out the music, the videos, the digital hoarding of software and other things I was able to get it down to 4 gigs with all personal data and pictures of 42 years of my life.

i can carry it on my phone and keep a copy on my hosting account, because I actually do pay for space, and it is pretty damn cheap.

Stop whining about free services...

serial_crusher: How are you going to access your data now, huh huh huh?

How much of that is absolutely crucial data? I have a waterproof 32GB stick that I always carry around with me. Chances are, I have that data in my pocket along with another flash drive that I can boot an OS from to retrieve that data.

dlp211: Also, everyone is freaking out about nothing, there is nothing in that license that allows them to use your data in a way that others would have access to it.

FTFA:

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services.

Yes, there is. Read it.

In essence, you give them full rights to your content. If they see a picture of your family smiling, and they decide it's perfect for their advertising campaign, they can use it and you can't stop them because you already gave them permission to use it. Even if you stop using their service, they can still use that picture if they want. And if they decide to, they can give you a Hitler mustache and publish that.

serial_crusher: A Tsunami wipes out your neighborhood, but you happen to be at work when the evacuation starts so you don't have time to grab the backup. The authorities won't let you back home because the nearby nuclear reactor could melt down any second. How are you going to access your data now, huh huh huh?

Meh.

You've got bigger problems at that point than accessing family photos and such. Still, if you were *REALLY* worried about it, you'd keep copies of the really, really, *REALLY* important stuff either in your head (like important numbers: your SSN, your bank account #), in your wallet, or on a USB stick.

That last one is a really good idea: You've always got your important stuff on you, and it can be on your key chain or whatever so you don't lose it.

The neat thing about all this is that Google will get millions of Drive users who will never even bother to read the data policy. So an article like this may affect the behavior of a handful of people, while the herd travels on in blissful ignorance.

The momentum behind these huge businesses is incredible and allows them to get away with just about anything unless they're called on shiat by a government they do not as yet own.

serial_crusher: digistil: Well, they already said (gizmodo, i think) they plan to use things like your pics as embeds in ads (Facebook is already doing this).

If they're doing the same thing Facebook does, there's absolutely no reason to fear. Facebook is taking information that's already visible to your account and displaying it next to an ad. They're not showing it to anybody who wouldn't have otherwise been able to access it.

So, under that model, Google would likely be taking your data and showing it back to you and you alone in an ad. The horror!
Unless of course you elected to share that file with some of your friends, at which point they might see it again in an ad. Catastrophic!

That's what Facebook is doing now, but if you read the terms and conditions Facebook has reserved the right to use your photos in any manner they see fit, in perptuity. The only upside is that they honor your privacy settings, so as long as you don't set everything to "public" you won't show up in the next ad campaign. However, Facebook can strip away the privacy clause in the future if they want.

bulldg4life: dittybopper: Most people aren't like a business: You can carry on functioning without pretty much all electronic data you've stored. Would it be more inconvenient? Sure, but it wouldn't likely result in the problems it would cause for a business*. That's why personal back-ups don't need to meet the stringent requirements that many businesses need to meet.

Obviously. But, come on...

If you make an extra key for your house, you don't keep it on the same key ring.

True, but I do keep it in the house.

So, why would you make a backup of your data and then keep it on the external hard drive right next to you. And, if you are keeping things in a fire safe, you're going to be constantly taking it out and putting it away as you keep the backup up-to-date. How long before the safe just stays open?

How often do you need to back up personal data?

Again, it's not like a business where it will cost you thousands or millions of dollars for every day of data lost, or every day you can't access it. Personal backups can be sporadic and still be OK. For example, you'd probably want to back up your tax data after you've filed your taxes. So you write those out to the hard drive, and stick it in the safe. Whenever you do something "important", which for most of us is fairly rarely, you back that up, and stick it in the safe.

Now, I've been in the IT business for well over 2 decades now, and when I look at it, honestly, there is almost no personal electronic data that I have at home that is *VITAL* that I retain no matter what. Any thing I have that is that important gets printed out and put in the safe, so there is a hard copy of it available even in situations where it would be impossible to access the data electronically. The rest of it is relatively inconsequential. Sure, it would suck if we lost the photos of the littlebopper growing up, but that wouldn't be the end of the World.

It's a different philosophy for personal data than for business data.