I would never, ever hand over my data to anyone else.
"I would never, ever hand over my data to anyone else."
I agree with this poster and seriously DISAGREE with "miles".
I probably don't have the wealth of data that the original poster has, but even so, I would never trust what I -do- have to "the cloud".
Have not there been instances of folks who committed data to online services, and then couldn't get it back? Was there not one "cloud" that simply closed down, leaving users with no access to anything?
And beyond that, there are issues of security and hacking. I don't care how "well-protected" a company (even Apple) claims that their (your) data is online, the time may come when the government decides it needs "back doors" into such systems, in the interest of "security". It's possible that such backdoors already exist, but are kept under wraps.
Aside: is not all international email now "monitored" by the NSA? How much "internal" email is scrutinized in the same way? Not all that many years ago the thought of doing this was unthinkable -- that is, not only was there no technology to do it, but this seemed beyond the bounds of acceptability in a "free society". Yet now it's routine.
Nope. The safekeeping and security of your data is up to.... you.
To the original poster:
If you really want to protect four years' worth of data, I suggest you get several hard drives, a USB/SATA "docking station", and a safe deposit box (or even two of them, each at a different bank). Then create a number of backups and store them securely off-site.
It will cost no more than online backup, probably less. And no one will have access to the data except you or your heirs (I believe a court-ordered warrant is required for law enforcement to access a safe deposit box).
It's really a matter of personal responsibility.
If your data is that important -- or sensitive -- why would you trust it to others?
Online backups are generally reasonably secure. However, you may have need to restore from a backup when an internet connection isn't available. For that reason alone, I would recommend a local backup in addition to any online backup you may have.
I sure hope part of your "strong, secure home network" where you have "complete control & security of my own backups" you have implemented off site backups of your precious data. One theft, fire, earthquake or whatever disaster will wish you had a stuff offsite.It would be a serious mistake for me to make such a suggestion.
I would never, ever hand over my data to anyone else. No matter how impressive their marketing campaigns are, one is still _paying_ to put their files at risk. If something should happen such as a hardware failure, long power outage, or other catastrophe like stolen files. You have no suitable way to retrieve your data.
While I do use various Cloud Services other than iCloud, it's for convenience & never involves files with sensitive or any personal info in them.
I purposely built a strong, secure home network for a few mission critical purposes. One of which was complete control & security of my own backups.
"I would never, ever hand over my data to anyone else."
I agree with this poster and seriously DISAGREE with "miles".
I probably don't have the wealth of data that the original poster has, but even so, I would never trust what I -do- have to "the cloud".
"You aren't guaranteed to have access to your data, unless the service has provided a local/offline option for you. The cloud service might also just disappear forever. Tip... always have a local copy."
Um... if one always keeps "a local copy" close-at-hand, then what's the point of having a "cloud backup"?
Particularly if you also keep an off-site backup to prevent against theft/fire, etc.
No single employee with the backup company has the ability to unlock the encryption on ANY backup stored on the servers. The personal plans likely differ slightly, but I can't see them differing THAT much.