Cloud service for writers?

[Madman Starryteller]

What's your thoughts on uploading your beloved work to a cloud service?

I am afraid that the service will abuse my work via either AI training or something else, but at the same time, I would feel so much more relieved knowing it's on a cloud in case of some disaster happening at home.

The more places you have backups, the better, right?

Your thoughts on keeping writing in the cloud?

 

[ps102]

Realistically, by the time you upload your work to the cloud, security is out of your hands. Google and the like have good security measures in place, but breaches do happen from time to time. On top of that, a breach may happen to your account specifically, in which case, your little attacker now has full access to your work. Regardless of the consequences, you really don't want that.

The current AI craze is also an issue. Some of these cloud companies (like Google) have come out to say that they won't use your data to train models. But their word isn't absolute. In the end, they have their own interests, and they are massive enough to abuse their power from time to time. Facebook survived the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and also the "Facebook Files" case, which was just shocking.

Encryption is a good defense. Encrypt your work before you upload to the cloud, and decrypt it locally. Doing this manually is a pain but there are software to automate the process. But that software should also be trustworthy.

The way I deal with it currently is with a bash script. It periodically creates encrypted 7zip archives of my writing directory and uploads them to OneDrive.

I'm also currently working on a C++/Qt novel writing app that will seamlessly sync writing projects to OneDrive with full encryption. It's my university thesis project. No, I don't plan to release it publicly—it'll be private only so I can customize it to my heart's content and make it my dream writing app. The automatic cloud encryption/decryption feature is one of the primary things I look forward to.

 

[ps102]

Realistically, by the time you upload your work to the cloud, security is out of your hands. Google and the like have good security measures in place, but breaches do happen from time to time. On top of that,

To be a bit clearer here, I'm not saying that your files will leak if you use a reputable cloud service like Google Drive. That's really, really unlikely, but still possible. All I'm saying is, Google's security is not up to you, and that is worth knowing.

 

[Madman Starryteller]

Very good points @ps102, especially about security and that someone else might get access if I get hacked or forget to change password for a few years.

I've found another way that should have been obvious from the start. I can either get a secure box in a bank, or I can simply get another USB and fill it up with my work and then give it to my mother/brother/friend for safe keeping. Probably some much more safe and reliable methods than going the cloud route.

Don't know why I didn't think of that first.

 

[ps102]

I've found another way that should have been obvious from the start. I can either get a secure box in a bank, or I can simply get another USB and fill it up with my work and then give it to my mother/brother/friend for safe keeping. Probably some much more safe and reliable methods than going the cloud route.

I recommend encrypting them with 7zip or your favorite archiving tool. That way, if it gets lost somehow, at least you'll be certain that someone doesn't have access to your work.

I speak from experience here. A couple of months ago, I threw away an SSD because I didn't have the interface to use it with anymore and *all* of my novels and short stories are in there. I mean, it wasn't the end of the world, but it made me really uncomfortable to think that they ended up in the hands of someone.

But if you do that, you have to make sure that you won't forget the decryption password. Otherwise, your backups will obviously become useless.

 

[Stuart Dren]

I've found another way that should have been obvious from the start. I can either get a secure box in a bank, or I can simply get another USB and fill it up with my work and then give it to my mother/brother/friend for safe keeping. Probably some much more safe and reliable methods than going the cloud route.

Not always. Flash memory dies eventually.

What's your thoughts on uploading your beloved work to a cloud service?

I am afraid that the service will abuse my work via either AI training or something else, but at the same time, I would feel so much more relieved knowing it's on a cloud in case of some disaster happening at home.

If they have access to it, I would just assume they're harvesting it themselves or selling it to be harvested regardless of their terms of service, since even if anyone finds out they'll probably just face a small fine if anything. Microsoft recently was pushing for more people to use Onedrive... hmm.

When your work is published, though, it will be harvested by AI anyway. Unavoidable in my opinion.

I use Google Docs. I plan to use Scrivener one day, but cloud is just so convenient. If you want extra assurance, backing it up to multiple locations is best i.e. on multiple drives + on a cloud, encrypted like Pure Snow said if you want to at least postpone harvesting.

Degrees of redundancy depends on how much losing it would affect you. Like a lot of things, some people have bad luck while others routinely walk razor edges without consequence.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

I regularly back up my computer files on two separate harddrives and at least one thumb drive. When I finish a day's work, I email the manuscript to two different emails. I have no desire to turn my work over to a third party. I loath One Drive and it ticks me off that Microsoft keeps shoving that and Copilot at me.. Disconnect them, and sooner or later, there they are again.

 

[ps102]

Not always. Flash memory dies eventually.

That's a really good point, actually. If you don't power a flash drive for long enough, the data becomes corrupted. This is because the electrical charges inside the flash cells dissipate—powering the drive even for a minute is enough to refresh them.

But they also like to just die sometimes. I had drives that do that.

The IT industry actually uses special tapes for long-term data archival. They are much more reliable than flash chips. Archival grade DVDs also exist if you have a DVD drive.

Thanks for raising this, @Stuart Dren. I had completely forgotten about all this!

 

[Madman Starryteller]

That's a really good point, actually. If you don't power a flash drive for long enough, the data becomes corrupted. This is because the electrical charges inside the flash cells dissipate—powering the drive even for a minute is enough to refresh them.

But they also like to just die sometimes. I had drives that do that.

The IT industry actually uses special tapes for long-term data archival. They are much more reliable than flash chips. Archival grade DVDs also exist if you have a DVD drive.

Thanks for raising this, @Stuart Dren. I had completely forgotten about all this!

I had no idea. Now I need to go and plug in all my drives to make sure nothing is lost. Been more than a year since last I used my external hard drive.

 

[ps102]

Been more than a year since last I used my external hard drive.

Note that what I said applies to flash chips—hard drives use magnetic disks so this doesn't apply to them. SSDs (solid state drives), on the other hand, do use flash chips.

 

[transplant]

Two cents...

Before "Cloud" services came to be, private companies offered PC backup. There was a period of time when desktop/laptop backup was a problem for IT managers. I didn't think they would still be around, but did a quick look and found 'Carbonite.com', it's an OpenText company. For $6 a month they provide backup/restore.

Personally I would go for something not dependent on any other company or the internet. When the apocalypse happens and the internet goes down, you can still use your zip7 files on a thumb drive or external drive. The trouble with that, it is a manual process to copy and move the backup to another location.

@ps102 makes a good point on thumb drives, you could get around that by having a few in rotation. Depends on if you want backup for posterity or restore in case your main machine craps out or the house burns down, etc.

I loath One Drive and it ticks me off that Microsoft keeps shoving that and Copilot at me.. Disconnect them, and sooner or later, there they are again.

Me too

I wonder if there is a peer-to-peer solution so that data could be copied to another machine, close but not too close. Worst case drive over and pick up your backup.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

I wonder if there is a peer-to-peer solution so that data could be copied to another machine, close but not too close.

I have a desk top and a lap top. I email manuscripts to myself whenever changes are made, then transfer those changes onto the other computer.

 

[transplant]

I have a desk top and a lap top. I email manuscripts to myself whenever changes are made, then transfer those changes onto the other computer.

Good straightforward effective solution. Ideally the two machines are in different locations in case a catastrophe like the toilet seat from the ISS falls on them.

Companies have to guarantee no loss of data for a particular time frame. i.e. nightly backup might be ok, they can live with losing a day's worth of updates, or more likely, they need to be able to recover the last transaction. For the rest of us, it's what you decide you can risk and the effort to put into it.