Today I was reminded about how awful cloud storage really is. You trust that whatever files you put in the cloud will be safe. But the truth is we have no clue what these cloud storage companies are doing.
Cloud Surveillance
I always figured Google was looking at private files on Google Drive but today there’s proof. Google Drive flagged and restricts user’s private screenshot from a movie. What this tells me is every single file that’s hosted on Google drive is subject to surveillance.
Apple is doing the same thing on iCloud and now on your iPhone itself. The reason does not really matter. There’s always a noble or just cause to justified the loss of privacy and freedom. That’s how they get their foot in the door. Because no one wants to say no to protecting the children. Then once things are in place they silently expand the surveillance.
Censorship
I’d be willing to bet that censorship comes next. Kind of like the Google thing. Who gets to decide what is hate speech and what is not? Maybe you have some pictures or files of a political nature that Google decides they don’t like so your files get locked down?
Or maybe your a doctor working on some Covid-19 research but your research is not in line with the political narrative? So your files are removed.
EARN IT Act
On top of all that this Earn It Act I keep hearing about looks like it will be taking away the privacy of anything that’s hosted online.
What can you do about it?
Encryption or hosting files yourself are the two answers I can think of.
Use your own encryption
If you have to use cloud storage (cloud surveillance) for some reason then I’d suggest encrypting your files before you upload them to the cloud.
Use something like 7zip or GPG to put your files into an encrypted container. At least then they should be relatively safe.
UPDATE 5/17/2023: Make sure they are using AES-256 and have a real good password. Because Microsoft is actively cracking zip files to look inside them.
Host your own cloud storage
If you are good with computers and want to try something fun I’d suggest looking into setting up your own cloud. Something like Nextcloud. That’s what I use and I love it. Mine is running on a Raspberry Pi 4 in my home office.
But there’s a lot of technical stuff to setting one up and this might not be a beginner friendly project.
But whatever you do I would avoid putting anything sensitive in the cloud.
