After looking at a couple of articles online, such as this: http://helpspa.com/other/backup/the-case-against-online-backup-services-%E2%80%93-privacy-privacy-privacy/ , I'm thinking that if the software runs on my computer and I can turn it off except when it's backing up, perhaps I do retain control over what it backs up? But the reality is that I'd probably do most of my backups overnight, and not be around to turn it off until morning.

confiscation (causing clients to lose access) adds another cautionary aspect to this. Granted the one most famous for that happening (megavideo) was clearly hosting copyrighted material for use by others (link down below), but there appeared to have been legal subscribers as well who were affected. Who is to say the more mainstream cloud services do not have users downloading illegal content as well and therefore potentially subject to a similar Federal action.

This plus the vulnerability to hacking and theft make me very wary. I won't even use the iphone/ipad/itunes cloud service, as I 'd hate to have to prove that every single song or video in my collection were obtained legally--even though they were. Plus, i don't wish to be even more vulnerable to identity theft.

Again, I will be interested in how others view the risks...


http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&ved=0CE4QtwIwAw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Ftechnology-16642369&ei=KoZUUY-nG6fZigL-1ID4Dg&usg=AFQjCNE4-HSSIJUIpT7H6EY5drihIV-jQA&bvm=bv.44442042,d.cGE

Buy a small external drive that comes with backup software. You can take it with you to protect your data in case of fire/theft.

and keep one off-site in case of fire/theft. Could even be at a neighbor's. Then just rotate the back-ups through the off-site location. That way you have a back-up to your back-up, one with you at all times and one off-site at all times. They're so inexpensive these days: I saw a Western Digital 1TB for $40 (with rebate, of course, but still...) For backup software, I like good ol' rsync.



It maintains a mirror copy of your files/directory structure which is handy because I like to "see" my backed up files rather than some weirdly named compressed files. Compression doesn't really gain you much anymore because the biggest storage hogs on my drive are media files and those tend to be already compressed. A mirror copy is also handy for when I delete a file on purpose and then change my mind a day or two later and decide I want it back. With the mirror, I can just plug it in and copy the file directly.

I also don't bother backing up system files. In the event of a total drive meltdown which has only happened to me a couple of times, I just take it as an opportunity to start over, reinstalling the OS and applications from recovery optical disc. Then recover my data from the back-up. The data is the important thing.

Anyway, that's my $0.02. Two external drives, one off-site always and rsync.

trading backups with a trusted friend, couldn't think of any great reason not to do it, but it's reassuring that you rec that approach, too.

for instance 'NTIBackup' can backup to an FTP site so you can get private online data storage, cloud or not as long as it allows SFTP (secure FTP) uploads, and backup to that. about as private and secure as you can get short of only using a VPN (more or less what Cisco networks the gov uses do).

another possibility.. look for a data center in sweden or Luxembourg (sp?) and send it using 2KB key heh.

if the firm goes belly-up/sold/merged with another firm, to your files and who has custody of them.