Cloud Services Advice

[starseerdrgn]

Alright… So, the shit is hitting the fan regarding cloud storage. For those who don't know, Google Drive has been eliminating adult content, and Microsoft just went face-first into the muck with their new terms of service:

CSOOnline story about Microsoft

Motherboard story on Google Drive and sex workers

So… Cloud storage isn't all that good of an option for people hosting content that can be seen as obscene or offensive. This will no doubt come to affect Dropbox, iCloud, and many others very soon, given breathings of some new laws going around.

So what can you do? Go back to sneakernet? No, there are options and solutions.

Use local storage for backup on top of cloud storage

This is very important right now. Make damn sure you have local backups of everything you've put on cloud storage. Photos, art, writings… Everything. Invest in a nice external drive enclosure and either an HDD or SSD, and throw everything onto that drive. Don't just trust that the copies on your main drive will last, especially if you have those files in the folder you use to sync with the service of your choice. Trust me, having that worry off your mind is absolutely worth it.

Use local applications instead of webapps

This is mostly for those who use Google Docs, Office Web, and iWork for iCloud. If you're using any of these services, I highly suggest you switch to something local to your machine— especially if you use Google Docs. GDocs stores everything in a sort of database, not in actual files, so you'll have to export your work to Microsoft Office or OpenDoc format files to have them offline. If you use Office Web or iWork for iCloud, those files are saved as documents automatically in OneDrive and iCloud respectively, and can just be downloaded as they are.

For Windows and Linux, I suggest LibreOffice or OpenOffice for an office suite. Both are good options, and you can save as OpenDoc or Microsoft Office files as you want.

For Macs, I suggest taking advantage of the free iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) on the app store. LibreOffice and OpenOffice are both available, but if you're looking for the simplicity of Google Docs, the iWork Suite is honestly a better option. You can also purchase/find copies of iWork '09, which is what I personally use.

There are other options, but these are the ones I prefer.

Encrypt anything you put in cloud storage

This is another big one. If you're going to continue using cloud storage, your best option for not having your files looked at is to encrypt them. There's many options for this, including password-protected zip and rar files with encryption, and encrypted disk images.

For the former—the easiest option—you can simply use most good archive applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux. PeaZip for Windows, and Unarchiver for MacOS, are the ones I recommend. I'm sorry I don't have one for Linux, but for encrypted arcives on that, I always used commandline tools and scripts that I no longer have.

Disk Images are a bit more tricky on Windows and Linux, since you'd need to make those images and then encrypt them, as far as I know. However, this is the option I use on Mac, and I do it like this:

1. Open Disk Utility.
2. File > New Image > Blank Image
3. Name it what you want. Give it a maximum drive size (I use 5GB drive images for my personal data).
4. For encryption, choose 256-bit AES encryption. Give it a good password.
5. For the Image Format, choose Sparse Disk Image. This is the best one to use, and sparse images only take up as much space on your drive as they have data, much like a zip file.

You can mount these disk images like any other DMG you download, though you’ll be able to write to it as well. And they'll be encrypted, so you won't have to worry about anyone snooping on them

Mobile is kinda...

Okay, so you've probably noticed I've said nothing about Android and iOS so far. There's a good reason for that: You're kinda boned on those fronts.

A vast majority of mobile apps rely on cloud storage and permanent connectivity for picture and document storage. If you find anything worth using that should be mentioned, leave a comment/reblog/whatever with the information, or just let me know and I'll throw it in here with everything.

Thankfully, both iOS and Android allow you to export photos fairly easily—well, with iOS, it's easy on Windows and Mac. For Macs, Photos (or iPhoto on older systems) will allow you to export from both Android and iOS. Windows makes it easy with Android, but iOS might need something else (don't know about Windows 10, but 7 needs an app to export with, like Windows Live Photo Gallery). With Linux, I doubt you're using an iOS device, but it's simple enough to export from most Android devices on that platform.

Chromebook is worse

If you're using a Chromebook… First of all, my condolences. Second, it's much trickier to get anything off of them. Given that pretty much nothing is stored locally (it's cloud-oriented device, after all), your best bet is to just try downloading everything directly to an external drive of some sort and hope it works. I haven't had the chance to seriously use one of these devices, but I'm well aware of how they work, so… Your mielage may vary.

However, as far as local apps go, you're kinda hosed unless you're running a newer Chromebook that allows for Android apps. It's just how the OS was made.

Host your own services

Okay… This isn't for everyone. Far from it. However, if you're tech-savvy enough, I highly suggest getting a VPS or web hosting (or if it's allowed by your ISP, provide your own hardware), and running your own storage solution.

OwnCloud is great for providing a WebDAV system for document and photo/art storage, and you can use things like Gallery, Zen Gallery, and a myriad of other projects to host art galleries on your own. And with services like Linode, hosting can be really cheap, depending on your needs.

In closing…

This is going to be an intense time for the web. Protect yourself, and protect your data. That's the best advice I can give you right now.