Best Online Storage Options

[Huntn]

Ok, I don't know enough to say this is the best, but it certainly looks like the deal:

Amazon Cloud Storage: EVERYTHING for $60 a year.

Any reason why it would not be a great deal?
Thanks!

 

[keysofanxiety]

Ok, I don't know enough to say this is the best, but it certainly looks like the deal:

Amazon Cloud Storage: EVERYTHING for $60 a year.

Any reason why it would not be a great deal?
Thanks!

Well, I've never been one to take T&Cs seriously, but this seems a little odd:

1.4 Third Party Services. The Service may allow you to give third party websites, apps, and services (“Third Party Services”) access to Your Files, including the ability to make copies of Your Files, modify or delete Your Files, or create new files on your behalf. The use and storage of Your Files by Third Party Services will be governed by their privacy policies and terms. Amazon has no responsibility or liability with respect to your use of Third Party Services or the content, functionality, or acts of Third Party Services you use.

3.3 Our Use of Your Files to Provide the Service. We may use, access, and retain Your Files in order to provide the Service to you and enforce the terms of the Agreement, and you give us all permissions we need to do so. These permissions include, for example, the rights to copy Your Files for backup purposes, modify Your Files to enable access in different formats, use information about Your Files to organize them on your behalf, and access Your Files to provide technical support. Amazon respects your privacy and Your Files are subject to the Amazon.com Privacy Notice located at www.amazon.com/privacy.

I mean, I'm not sure if all cloud services have this sort of thing written in the fineprint, (I've got Dropbox 1TB, knowing my luck, it's the same) but those ones I've quoted do ring some alarm bells

EDIT:

Okay so Dropbox's is:

Others working for Dropbox. Dropbox uses certain trusted third parties to help us provide, improve, protect, and promote our Services. These third parties will access your information only to perform tasks on our behalf and in compliance with this Privacy Policy.

Other users. Our Services display information like your name and email address to other users in places like your user profile and sharing notifications. Certain features let you make additional information available to other users.

I guess that's a little better, well ... certainly inspires more confidence than Amazon's.

 

[Huntn]

Well, I've never been one to take T&Cs seriously, but this seems a little odd:

1.4 Third Party Services. The Service may allow you to give third party websites, apps, and services (“Third Party Services”) access to Your Files, including the ability to make copies of Your Files, modify or delete Your Files, or create new files on your behalf. The use and storage of Your Files by Third Party Services will be governed by their privacy policies and terms. Amazon has no responsibility or liability with respect to your use of Third Party Services or the content, functionality, or acts of Third Party Services you use.

3.3 Our Use of Your Files to Provide the Service. We may use, access, and retain Your Files in order to provide the Service to you and enforce the terms of the Agreement, and you give us all permissions we need to do so. These permissions include, for example, the rights to copy Your Files for backup purposes, modify Your Files to enable access in different formats, use information about Your Files to organize them on your behalf, and access Your Files to provide technical support. Amazon respects your privacy and Your Files are subject to the Amazon.com Privacy Notice located at www.amazon.com/privacy.

I mean, I'm not sure if all cloud services have this sort of thing written in the fineprint, (I've got Dropbox 1TB, knowing my luck, it's the same) but those ones I've quoted do ring some alarm bells

EDIT:

Okay so Dropbox's is:

Others working for Dropbox. Dropbox uses certain trusted third parties to help us provide, improve, protect, and promote our Services. These third parties will access your information only to perform tasks on our behalf and in compliance with this Privacy Policy.

Other users. Our Services display information like your name and email address to other users in places like your user profile and sharing notifications. Certain features let you make additional information available to other users.

I guess that's a little better, well ... certainly inspires more confidence than Amazon's.

Ok, you've just given me something to think about.
Just how unusual is this?

I found this article: http://www.zdnet.com/article/no-privacy-on-amazons-cloud-drive/.
Although right now, I would not be putting stuff that needs security, but that's kind of unsat.

Ok how about Carbonite? Unlimited, $4 a month?
http://www.carbonite.com/

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Why is 1.4 a problem? It only says that you can give other access to your files, ie. have a third party application add kittens to all your pictures (Or whatever).

 

[Weaselboy]

Ok, I don't know enough to say this is the best, but it certainly looks like the deal:

Amazon Cloud Storage: EVERYTHING for $60 a year.

Any reason why it would not be a great deal?
Thanks!

If you are looking to use this just for backup, you can use the app Arq to backup to Amazon Cloud Storage. Are encrypts the data before it leaves you machine, so Amazon can't see anything.

Of course this won't work if you want the files in a readable format where they can be accessed with various cloud apps. But is would get you an encrypted backup.

I use Arq to Amazon S3 like this and it works perfectly.

 

[Huntn]

Why is 1.4 a problem? It only says that you can give other access to your files, ie. have a third party application add kittens to all your pictures (Or whatever).

I think that was a knee jerk on my part. Think I misread it the first time.

I re-read 3.3 and it basically says, we have to mess with your files to manage them. Now does that mean open and read them? Hmm.
The article link I previously posted cites a section 5.2 Our Right to Access Your Files, but when I went checked the actual agreement deals with 5.2 Suspension and Termination.

If you are looking to use this just for backup, you can use the app Arq to backup to Amazon Cloud Storage. Are encrypts the data before it leaves you machine, so Amazon can't see anything.

Of course this won't work if you want the files in a readable format where they can be accessed with various cloud apps. But is would get you an encrypted backup.

I use Arq to Amazon S3 like this and it works perfectly.

Thanks, I'll look at that. How hard is it to manage your files as far as keeping them synced up?

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

The article link I previously posted cites a section 5.2 Our Right to Access Your Files

The wording is important. Without having read it, it could just mean they need your permission to do their backup/server stuff.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks, I'll look at that. How hard is it to manage your files as far as keeping them synced up?

Once setup it is completely transparent and just automatically does incremental backups however often you specify. The default is hourly, but I just have it set for once a day in the evening.

 

[Huntn]

Found this article at Macworld: Is iCloud the best value? It compares most of the major services, but does not include a discussion of encryption.

 

[Weaselboy]

Found this article at Macworld: Is iCloud the best value? It compares most of the major services, but does not include a discussion of encryption.

I think the problem for now is the iCloud services don't back everything up. I would gladly pay a little extra to have iCloud backup my entire user folder to Apple's servers like I do now with Arq and S3.

I could see them maybe adding a Time Machine option like backing up the Users folder to iCloud.

 

[Adam Hauter]

I would be wary of cloud providers' polices in general - for example, Google Drive claims full ownership of the data you upload to their servers. I'm not sure about Amazon or Dropbox, but there have been some insightful posts in this thread. As an alternative, I would suggest switching to a private cloud such as Sher.ly or MyCloud - it has the benefits of superior file security and the device doubles as a quite competent media player

 

[Weaselboy]

I would be wary of cloud providers' polices in general - for example, Google Drive claims full ownership of the data you upload to their servers. I'm not sure about Amazon or Dropbox, but there have been some insightful posts in this thread. As an alternative, I would suggest switching to a private cloud such as Sher.ly or MyCloud - it has the benefits of superior file security and the device doubles as a quite competent media player

If you use Arq to backup to Amazon S3 like I mentioned earlier, the data is encrypted before it leaves your machine, so there is no way Amazon can see your data. But your point is well taken.

 

[Huntn]

I would be wary of cloud providers' polices in general - for example, Google Drive claims full ownership of the data you upload to their servers. I'm not sure about Amazon or Dropbox, but there have been some insightful posts in this thread. As an alternative, I would suggest switching to a private cloud such as Sher.ly or MyCloud - it has the benefits of superior file security and the device doubles as a quite competent media player

Basically I'm just using this for very important and large game saves. How can these companies claim to own your data? For anything important that is disturbing. I will look into the two services you mentioned for more important stuff. Is this MyCloud: http://www.mycloud.com/products/? Up front, these look like at-home storage. I'm all ready doing that with TB sized drives in my office.

I just cancelled my Amazon Cloud Drive (trial) when I ran into a limit on downloads- 5GB or 1000 files. If you exceed either of these limits, the service makes you break up the folder, then unzip it upon receipt and put it back together. This is the critique I sent to them:

Please pass this on to your Amazon Cloud Drive Management Group: I cancelled my Cloud drive because of the download limit (from the drive) of 5GB which is reasonable, and/or a max of 1000 files which is NOT reasonable. When you run into this, it forces you to break the folder in two, then after receipt, unzip it and reassemble it. NOT CONVENIENT. If you want an example of convenience, look at Drop Box, or even Google Drive. In addition, your desktop Amazon Cloud App is worthless for downloads. It consists of 2 tabs, an Upload Tab, allowing you to drag a file or folder to it and upload to the cloud. This is no problem. But under the Download Tab, its has a single option, "Download Cloud Drive". Are you serious? I might think that this is operator error on my part, but starting back in early December, I spoke with Amazon Customer Service 3 times, and was never able to get past that and they did not have a solution. I suspect what I see is how it is, no option appears for downloading a file or a folder from the drive. Personally, if you are going to take the time to build an App, I would expect it to be at least as functional as using a browser to interact with the Amazon Cloud Drive. Thanks for listening.

I'll stick with Google Drive, which is free and has no such limits. Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[BrianBaughn]

I signed up when they were running the $5 for the first year deal for Prime members last month.

It's not much use to me. There's a 2TB file size limit.

Also, as a "heads up", to try and sync it I tried a "Dropbox" type app called "odrive" that, after I thought I had turned it off, was still running a process in the background. Writing an error message to the Console log every second!