Avoid iCloud Spyware - Top 5 Private Cloud Services That WON'T Scan Your Data

apple's icloud is the easiest way for third parties including governments to access all of your data even the previously end-to-end encrypted data like imessages seriously let's talk today about why cloud storage can be unsafe and your files really aren't yours followed by four phenomenal services to fix that a couple honorable mentions and of course the number one service we recommend it's a fun video so get ready first why aren't google drive and the other mainstream providers safe i mean they use military-grade encryption after all well that's because they still own the encryption keys meaning while the data is safe from the world they still have the key to access it this means governments are able to tap on them and borrow the key which happens more frequently than you might think and they of course can access the data themselves at any time it's just simply not yours the cloud is just someone else's computer and in the case with these providers they control your data but then and encryption comes along where the encryption keys are now owned by you this is commonly the term used for messaging platforms but in the cloud world you're more commonly hear it referred to as zero knowledge encryption if a service has this it means only you control your encryption keys the pro is no one can access your data except you not even the service that has your data the con is if you lose access to your credentials you lose your data at our editor who did this very thing so make sure to keep backups people again we're going to cover five services and two honorable mentions there are no right choices and these are loosely based on our personal preference so it's by no means a set list don't take the ordering too seriously let's go ahead and get started service 5 is tresorit which has more of an emphasis on businesses and even their personal plans are a bit more intense starting at 500 gigabytes with the cheapest plan being over 10 dollars a month billed annually tressa relies on predominantly a trezor system which are dedicated folders used for syncing it seems geared towards desktop clients that integrate with your files directly in fact they require you to use their client to finish setting up your account which i was very much not a fan of i don't like downloading things something else even with the steep cost there's a five gigabyte file limit five device limits and up to two gigabyte sharing limit on their cheapest plan which i find completely distasteful the positives though it works well it has an overall polished interface and clients for all major operating systems it has versioning options for zero knowledge encryption a fully mounted drive option they're headquartered in switzerland and it does work so this is a good option definitely my least favorite on the list but privacy and security wise it's still top tier and definitely something we feel comfortable recommending as one of our top five services service four is ice drive a uk-based cloud provider with an emphasis on end users rather than the trezor system ice drive focuses more on a mounted drive system for all major operating systems they likewise rely on zero knowledge encryption and their pricing is a lot more fair than tresorit whose monthly plan is over twice as much with half the storage and has annoying limitations that is drive just simply doesn't believe in they have a free plan to get started with but it does not have zero knowledge encryption that is a paid option the clients were overall nice to use and i felt it was cleaner and more polished than tresser it either way there's a free 10 gigabyte plan so there's no risk in giving it a shot just be aware you have to be on a paid plan for zero knowledge encryption i was a major fan of ice drive and it was one of my favorites that i looked at on this list service 3 was difficult for us to choose and it's mega to start with why it was hard it had quite the interesting turn of events in the past leading many people to just dismiss it altogether what we couldn't ignore though is they offer zero knowledge encryption which theoretically takes away you really needing to trust them very much but the real separation here is mega publishes all its source code for its clients all of them which is totally awesome this means you can verify everything that's been done yourself and because it is zero knowledge there's a high degree of trust you can place in mega or that you don't really need to place in mega their free plan has beyond a generous start their clients are nice they offer communication and other cool features directly integrated into the service and they don't lie when they call themselves generous i mean daddy mega do treat its customers right as much as we wanted to distrust mega it was actually previously an honorable mention in this video we had to throw it in the top three since the more we looked at it it seemed like unironically it was a great option in a top three service that we could recommend to you service 2 is proton drive from the makers of protonmail and proton vpn in short if you're looking for a google suite kind of replacement with an emphasis on user privacy this is going to be the closest you'll get and it comes with your email calendar contacts and drive storage with respective clients coming for all of those on all devices sometime soon hopefully the main issues right off the bat is it is a brand new service freshly out into the public and it's extremely limited on storage you get to five yes five gigabytes of storage on their four dollar a month plan and 20 for their visionary plan can't make this up storage is kind of it's also entirely web-based with no clients whatsoever so you might be asking why it's even number two if it kind of sucks well for one proton is incredibly trusted if not the most trusted provider on this list so far and we really did throw it in here the main reason with a perspective on its suite if you're simply looking for the best strict cloud provider for your files the other options so far are probably better for you but if you're looking for a sweet alternative like to get away from google this is where proton really shines and offers a compelling product now before covering our top service we can't forget those honorable mentions so let's do those before we cover service number one our first honorable mention is cryptomator cryptomator is not a cloud provider what it does is it lets you use icloud google drive dropbox or whatever with end-to-end encryption since it handles everything locally before it touches the respective cloud provider it's a great option if you enjoy your cloud provider but don't enjoy how they can access your data it's just a good free middle ground do proceed with caution and make sure you're keeping backups as always since cryptomater is a third party tool that can cause issues overall though it's a fantastic service and we went ahead and sponsored them for their great work which you should do too if you use and enjoy their service our second honorable mention is crypt drive which is actually what we use for our entire surveillance report workflow cryptpad is more of a google drive collaboration alternative with real-time collab features some basic cloud storage options everything is open source and basic functionality is completely free you should give it a shot since the free option is extremely generous it's not great for strictly large amounts of data storage but it's wonderful for document collaboration and finally our top service of the video is nexcloud which i'm sure many of you saw coming the pros to nexcloud everything is open source self-hostable and it really does bring together all the pros of everything so far from a usability perspective you can use nexcloud mounted on your operating systems you can just use the web client it supports contacts calendars communication email collaboration and really everything you would need integrated under the same roof it really is like the ultimate google replacement it's nice though definitely a bit buggy sometimes and it's far from being a perfect replacement the cons as i just hinted at i would not call nexcloud a polished service end-to-end encryption funny enough is still not a default and must be configured and the big elephant in the room next cloud is generally self-hosted meaning you run it on something like a server yourself so it is a lot more involved than the other options on this list it's worth mentioning though there are plenty of people who host nexcloud for you and you can just pay them a monthly fee like a normal provider whichever direction you go next cloud is just a fantastic option you should definitely know about and that's our list to recap dresser ice drive and mega are all fantastic options if you're looking for strictly cloud storage with mega and ice drive being our favorites proton drive is nice if you're looking for a google-like suite without too much of an emphasis on cloud storage cryptomator is a great middle ground option that works with your current cloud provider drive for real-time collaboration and of course nexcloud for the overall ultimate option that really sums everything up keep in mind you can use multiple services each of them have pros and cons and every service on this list is free or offers a free plan or trial for you to give it a shot as always you'll find both an affiliate link and normal link in the description for all services that we mentioned that have one it's a great way you can support our content at no cost to you and you always have both links to make that decision it doesn't influence what we recommend don't forget our website has resources where we will eventually add these services and update them over time there's also privacy tools io they're great and don't forget we have a patreon you can see all our top patrons at the bottom with awesome benefits and that is all for today see everyone next time on tech lore [Music]

Channel: Techlore

Views: 26,463

Keywords: Cloud privacy, cloud storage providers, cryptpad, cryptdrive, iCloud privacy, iCloud security, cloud security, nextcloud, icedrive, MEGA cloud, protondrive, protonmail, tresorit, secure file storage, private file storage, zero knowledge encryption, end to end encryption, apple csam scanning, apple csam detection, apple privacy, tresorit review, nextcloud review, cloud providers, cloud review, mega review, proton review, icedrive review, review, guide, techlore, cloud storage, e2EE

Id: 72lxrH7GmDg

Length: 8min 49sec (529 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 27 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Survey_Unusual]

List them. I’m not watching a near 9 minute long ad-filled video.

[u/[deleted]]

Basically: 1. Nextcloud 2. Proton Drive 3. Mega 5. Tresorit 4. Icedrive

Honorable Mentions: 1. Cryptomator 2. CryptPad

My note: If your concern is really the privacy, I'd reccomend buying a server and using Nextcloud.

[u/katsumiblisk]

Does anyone else avoid links that open YouTube videos?

[u/polystirenman]

i’m all right with scanning cloud content. them doing it my phone, is simply unacceptable. this will be largely misused in a future, once this is embedded in the iOS. funny how governments around the world are becoming more and more oppressive and borderline tyrannical, and Apple is announcing this and digital ID at the same time. Just another tool for surveillance.

[u/thenonovirus]

Scanning your photos on the cloud for CSMA is fine, scanning them on device is not. It's their servers and their obligation to scan all the contents for any illegal content if it's not encrypted.

So basically every cloud provider other than iCloud on iOS 15 are fine to use. If you want no CSMA scanning on the cloud, then use an encrypted service. Easy.

[u/harryahair]

U.K. authority stands for Apple for CSAM feature because of their passion and curiosity toward surveillance. Even so, he at least did mention the zero-knowledge-encryption, which is good.