Is It safe to store my personal images in the cloud?

Yes. And no.

Storing photos in the cloud can help save storage space on your devices and make your images immediately accessible across all your devices. Many popular cloud storage services offer a free tier but are they safe?

What is cloud storage?

Cloud storage is basically remote storage. Instead of keeping your precious files – photos, video, documents and the like – on your smartphone, hard drive, thumb drive or other physically accessible storage, you save them offsite, on a server – via the internet.

Once you sign in and configure the service, you can store, access and maintain your digital data online.

What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Practically speaking, cloud storage is infinite. Instead of being limited by space, such as a 2TB external hard drive, you are limited by money. The more money you spend, the more storage you can access.

While your years-old hard drive can fail, get lost, become corrupted or be outdated (think ZIP drives), top-tier cloud service providers guarantee the five nines – reliable access to your files 99.999% of the time. They are ideal for backup, archiving, disaster recovery and data transfer. Those same cloud services boast robust security with frequent updates, solid firewalls and deep redundancies.

Ultimately, cloud services help you transfer clutter off your devices and out of sight until you need that one obscure photo from 19 whenever, assuming you have an internet connection.

Unlike your good old hard drive that you can readily access, you must have a (strong) internet connection to access your files. No internet – no data. The online nature means you’ll never be able to tap into your files quite as fast. You are a hostage to the service’s security, uptime, and fees. And your files are subject to the laws of the country in which the servers reside.

Is cloud storage secure?

Yes. And no.

If you don’t have a strong password or 2FA, hackers can log in to your ‘secure’ account.

In the less-than-likely scenario that the whole system is breached, hackers can get thousands of user files and spend days sifting through them to find your specific files. Employees can too, but again, not that likely.

In the more likely scenario, providers like Google can use algorithms to ‘look’ at your files to hunt for clues to guide advertising. In the near future, they may scan your files for illicit content. Indeed, with a court order, they will hand your files over to the relevant authorities.

What can I do to protect my data?

As always, start with solid credentials, a unique password and 2FA.

Seek out services that offer end-to-end encryption (E2EE); and note, this is never free. Many services will encrypt your data once on the server, but then it is exposed while uploading and downloading.

Back up your back up. Have at least three copies of your data, two local (on-site) but on separate devices, and at least one copy in the cloud. Sounds tedious but worth it.

Finally, for the absolute best protection, you can encrypt your data locally before storing it in the cloud. In simpler terms, that means scrambling the information with a code which only you know before you transfer it to the cloud. Beware: if you lose or forget the code, referred to by experts as an "encryption key", you’ll never see your cherished data ever again. Yikes.

What are the recommended services?

Some are convenient. Some are more secure. Some are less expensive. There is no best. That said, popular options include Google Drive, Apple iCloud, Dropbox, Microsoft One Drive and Box. pCloud and Mega offer E2EE as standard.

Should I use Cloud Storage?

Yes, without a doubt. Be mindful of the conditions based on the benefits and drawbacks, and enjoy all the space it opens up on your devices.