It's time to call in the techies, because I want to share my family finance worksheets in a secure way.
Google Docs is lovely for collaboration (aside from its inability to convert some file formats). However, I believe that Google employees are waiting for me to choose the wrong setting and publish everything to the web where they can pick it over for data to sell. And no, I don't think that is paranoid, but you can try to convince me otherwise. This concern has kept me from really getting on with Google+ and similar issues are clouding my relationship with Facebook.
Which takes me to Dropbox, an application with few opportunities to inadvertently share information, as long as I stay away from the pre-installed Photos and Public folders. Dropbox encrypts all files so if strangers bump into your data they won't be able to read it.
But then I found out that Dropbox has been having issues with privacy. According to this Wired article the company has access to the encryption keys, so the files are potentially open to Dropbox employee viewing. I think Dropbox is good enough for me, but if you want to check out the next level of security the Travelin' Librarian recommends Wuala.
Technical and psychological help will be needed before I go any deeper into Internet privacy and security.
2 comments:
In addition to the privacy issue there's also that of trust. I totally trusted Dropbox until recently when it randomly deleted a bunch of my files.
Fortunately via the web you can undelete them but it really worried me. I now have backups on a server at home, and have set reminders to backup periodically.
Jo, thanks for the heads-up. My backups do not always run when scheduled!
I took another look at Wuala and the product tech friends claim is standard in large companies - Net in a box (box.net). Net in a box only provides encryption for business users. Wuala has a lot of amusing PR based on the Swiss-ness of their security...if anyone is using Wuala and has feedback let me know.
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