[Macworld]

Post your comments for Automatically encrypt files for your Google Drive here

[markfig]

Outstanding, useful tip. Thanks!

[akeller]

Super stuff. Thanks to both you and Armin Briegel.

[AppleZilla]

Great. Now how do we protect our data from the Mountain View Ad Company itself?

[worksafe]

Will this work for Microsofts SkyDrive as well?

[inik5bwh]

 AppleZilla, on 24 April 2012 - 10:08 AM, said:

Great. Now how do we protect our data from the Mountain View Ad Company itself?

This tip will do it. Encrypted is encrypted.

[Chris Breen]

 worksafe, on 24 April 2012 - 10:23 AM, said:

Will this work for Microsofts SkyDrive as well?

It works with any service that creates a local folder from which it syncs your data. All you have to do is make sure that the folder name appears in the Image Location pop-up menu.

[perdygood]

How does this work with iOS?

How safe are these disk images from being corrupted (and losing some/all of your data) due to simultaneous access from two or more Macs?

Why the h*ll doesn't Dropbox (or Apple) take the high road and provide true privacy/security? Is the NSA standing in the way or something--or is the NSA bribing them?

[Chris Breen]

 perdygood, on 24 April 2012 - 10:48 AM, said:

How does this work with iOS?

It doesn't.

Quote

How safe are these disk images from being corrupted (and losing some/all of your data) due to simultaneous access from two or more Macs?

You should always have copies of important files on your computer.

[DanHedgpethmmqf]

Can you use it with Microsoft Skydrive? With 7GB free cloud on Skydrive, 5GB with Dropbox and 5Gb with Google Drive, that's 17GB free space.

[Chris Breen]

 DanHedgpethmmqf, on 24 April 2012 - 11:27 AM, said:

Can you use it with Microsoft Skydrive? With 7GB free cloud on Skydrive, 5GB with Dropbox and 5Gb with Google Drive, that's 17GB free space.

See previous reply.

[perdygood]

 Chris Breen, on 24 April 2012 - 10:55 AM, said:

 perdygood, on 24 April 2012 - 10:48 AM, said:

How does this work with iOS?

It doesn't.

FAIL

Quote

Quote

How safe are these disk images from being corrupted (and losing some/all of your data) due to simultaneous access from two or more Macs?

You should always have copies of important files on your computer.

Skydrive files are on one's computer. However, maintaining duplicate copies (Skydrive and non-Skydrive, cloud-synced and non-cloud-synced), in a manner that avoids risk of corruption due to simultaneous access, is hardly convenient or foolproof. The temptation will be to make an occasional backup copy of the Skydrive/cloud files, because it's so easy, but the Skydrive/cloud files may already be corrupt without the user's knowledge. Time Machine backups are another potentially convenient source of backups, but people are known to clear out Time Machine--not knowing if the Skydrive/cloud files are corrupted. Corruption may be difficult to detect, as well.

[Chris Breen]

 perdygood, on 24 April 2012 - 11:30 AM, said:

FAIL

Let me see, where's that rolling eyes icon...

Ah, there it is.

Quote

Skydrive files are on one's computer. However, maintaining duplicate copies (Skydrive and non-Skydrive, cloud-synced and non-cloud-synced), in a manner that avoids risk of corruption due to simultaneous access, is hardly convenient or foolproof. The temptation will be to make an occasional backup copy of the Skydrive/cloud files, because it's so easy, but the Skydrive/cloud files may already be corrupt without the user's knowledge. Time Machine backups are another potentially convenient source of backups, but people are known to clear out Time Machine--not knowing if the Skydrive/cloud files are corrupted. Corruption may be difficult to detect, as well.

If those files are really, really important to you, I'm sure you'll suss out a way to ensure that you have a reliable backup of them. If you don't take pains to back up your data in a recoverable way, there's no one to blame but yourself.

[JeffXBrown]

SpiderOak offers inherently encrypted cloud storage. 2GB for free or 100GB for $100 per year.

The decryption key is stored exclusively on your computer and they have no access to your data. There's no issue of whether the employees compy with privacy policies, they couldn't get at your data if they wanted to--assuming you've chosen a good password.

This may be a good way to go if privacy is you main concern.