Free online storage services

Just to point out that none of these services are actually free - transferring data to an online storage facility will eat into your monthly data allowance. Of course, you may have an unlimited account - but if so, you're probably paying a lot of money for it!
Burning data onto a DVD-R leaves you in control of the data and only costs around 30p for 4.7GB. If the data is important, burn 2 copies and keep them in separate places.
Better still, invest in a portable hard drive for your backups as well - at around £70 for 1 TB of data, that's only 7p per GB!

greenalien wrote: »

Just to point out that none of these services are actually free - transferring data to an online storage facility will eat into your monthly data allowance. Of course, you may have an unlimited account - but if so, you're probably paying a lot of money for it!
Burning data onto a DVD-R leaves you in control of the data and only costs around 30p for 4.7GB. If the data is important, burn 2 copies and keep them in separate places.
Better still, invest in a portable hard drive for your backups as well - at around £70 for 1 TB of data, that's only 7p per GB!

I pay a monthly amount for unlimited use on my BB. The storage services are free because the provider does not charge you.

Also, beware that a DVD may not be as safe a storage medium as you think, and if you burn 2 DVDs from the same pack at the same time then they may not offer quite the absolute data security that you may imagine.

What has kept me from using any of these services so far is that I feel uncomfortable with uploading files that may contain personal, private or otherwise "sensitive" information into an environment that is basically open to anyone who has the means to sniff around, be it a rogue employee of the file hoster or the government of whichever country my files may physically end up in.

What I would really like is to keep my files at the host in an encrypted form. I could do that by hand (i.e. encrypt on my computer before uploading, decrypt after downloading), but for regular backups or any sort of synchronising that would be very awkward.

Does anyone know of a file host that offers "on the fly" encrypting/decrypting during uploading/downloading, or a PC-based program that would do the job independently of the host?

I'm not talking about encrypting the files during travel through the Internet; I assume many services will offer that protection by using a https connection. I'm looking for a way to keep the files encrypted while they are with the host.

Amazon recently launched its Cloud service in the UK (Amazon Cloud Drive).

You get 5GB free with your amazon account and various packages that are cheaper than skydrive/google/apple.

Search for "Amazon cloud drive UK" (Sorry can't post links)

I'm looking to purchase the 20GB for £6 which seems a fab deal to me.

I already have 50GB with box.com however would trust my files with amazon more.

BHS wrote: »

If you're looking for a totally secure/private service then look at Spideroak.

With Spideroak your data is encrypted on your PC before transmission to the servers and only you have the key, so nobody can look at your data, Spideroak call this Zero Knowledge Privacy.

If you want to achieve similar results with Dropbox, GDrive etc. then take a look at BoxCryptor or Cloudfogger apps.

Superb advice! Thanks very much.

Here's an interesting review of Spideroak:
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/spideroak-dropbox-for-the-security-obsessive/