Privacy-Focused Cloud Drives: Why Choose Mega Instead of Google Drive?

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 15:01:46 +0800

Privacy cloud drive recommendation: why choose Mega instead of Google Drive?

This article is not a comparison of multiple cloud drives, but a discussion of how to choose a cloud service that maximizes privacy protection, without prioritizing capacity or price.

Below, let’s discuss how to ensure your data remains private among cloud providers. Self-hosting is not within the scope of discussion.

1. Why Not Choose Mainstream Cloud Drives Like Google
#

Choosing a cloud drive provider depends on usage. If it is for work, Google Drive, Microsoft Onedrive, Dropbox, and iCloud are definitely the most suitable. They are all deeply integrated with their office software, and many people use them.

But if it is a personal cloud, privacy should be emphasized, so choose clouds such as Mega, pCloud, and Proton Drive.

This is not saying cloud services such as Google Drive are unsafe. The main issue is that they lack deeper encryption procedures. Google encrypts transmission and will not let others see your cloud, but Google can see your file contents. That makes it convenient to organize with algorithms and also check for viruses.

Google’s user terms also state very clearly:

II. Program Policies
We may review content to determine whether it is illegal or violates the Program Policies, and we may remove or refuse to display content that we reasonably believe violates the policies or law. However, this does not mean we necessarily review content, so please do not assume so.

There are also the Google Terms of Service:

Rights
This license allows Google to do the following:
Host, reproduce, distribute, communicate, and use your content; for example, store your content on our systems so you can access it anytime, anywhere
Publish, publicly transmit, or publicly display your content (provided you have made this content available to others)
Modify your content and create derivative works based on your content, such as reformatting or translating your content
Sublicense these rights to:
Other users, so the services can operate as designed, such as letting you share photos with people you choose
Contractors who have contracts with Google (whose contract terms must comply with these terms), but sublicensing must be for only the few purposes described in the purposes section below

The downside is that Google may easily detect copyrighted materials. Or the content stored by veterans may be too dangerous, and in the future even two-dimensional virtual images may be regarded as crimes. If detected, Google will help you take them down, and sometimes even call the police.

Although the user violated the law first, this also shows that cloud drive providers do have certain review capabilities. Of course, Western ones will not be as glass-hearted as China’s.

Although users can encrypt files beforehand and then upload them, so nobody can scan them, this turns the cloud into cold storage rather than a convenient space for accessing files. Cross-device access also becomes less easy, violating the original design intent of cloud services.

Google Drive on Ivon's Blog

Privacy-Focused Cloud Drives: Why Choose Mega Instead of Google Drive?

1. Why Not Choose Mainstream Cloud Drives Like Google #

1. Why Not Choose Mainstream Cloud Drives Like Google
#