If You Pay For Dropbox You've Got A Treat Coming

toggle-button

Although there are companies queueing up to offer you free cloud-based storage, sometimes the free offerings just don't provide enough space. Which is why, for the past year or 2, I've been a paying customer of Dropbox. Having used the free 2 GB service and decided that I was happy with it, I took the plunge and subscribed. Which got me 200 GB, for a reasonable $19.99 a month.

With so much competition out there, Dropbox has often been criticized for not increasing its capacities or decreasing its prices. Well, now it seems to have done just that. My 200 GB account has just been upgraded, for free, to 2 TB. That's a tenfold increase! And I was even offered the option to "downgrade" to a mere terabyte of space, for just $9.99 a month. Which I accepted gladly.

So I'm now paying half of what I was ($10 instead of $20), for 5 times the storage (1 TB rather than 0.2 TB). The technology world moves in mysterious ways. So if you currently pay for additional Dropbox space, keep an eye on your account over the next few days as you're probably about to receive a big free upgrade.

Please rate this article: 

Your rating: None
3
Average: 3 (3 votes)
toggle-button

Comments

As far as security is concerned, if you are concerned, I would suggest you look at a Drive Encryption Utility, so the cloud folder is encrypted by your computer and then uploaded to the cloud. That way if someone in the cloud is doing a dirty on you, your data is still safe. Another tip make sure your cloud provider is in a different legal jurisdiction to you. Any thoughts on this?

You would want drive encryption for other reasons (like computer theft) but here it won't do the trick I'm afraid: before uploading the file, that file will first be decrypted by your system software, in order to be able to upload it to your cloud. You could keep your files in an encrypted container, and upload that container file (seen as just one file once not opened) as it is, but from my experience working with these container files is a pain in the ....

What you would want is: end-point (user controlled) encryption of each file just prior to being uploaded. Google that, because Gizmo is not allowing me to mention any of these alternatives to the above advertised Dropbox.

I keep encrypted containers in the cloud. It works OK, especially if you take some time to sort out which of your files NEED to be encrypted and which don't. When I did that, I worked out that I could manage with a container of just 100 MB or so for my encrypted stuff. Which is manageable.
Mmmm I stand corrected, the problem with using a cloud encryption is that if someone has unauthorized by you access to the files in the cloud, then they probably have access to the encryption. So I would suggest if security is important to you to use something like AxCrypt, then put it into the cloud. I agree it is a pain.

In the case of endpoint (user) encrytpion that need not be the case: the encryption key should remain on your system only, I agree it should definitely NOT be in the cloud! There are cloud services that provide you with precisely that feature. This way, even the cloud service providor cannot possibly see what is inside your files. One disadvantage being: incremental backup is not possible as a result, so if you make a change to a file, it needs to be uploaded in full again. But to me, that is a small disadvantage I can perfectly live with, given the protection of my privacy.

OneDrive is free : 1 Tb

When I checked OneDrive, only 15 GB unless you have an Office 365 subscription where it goes to 1TB.
I recently loaded "Box" on my new Android LG Viper and it came with 50 GB for life as a promotion, able to sync with my desktop.

Yes, there are lots of promotions around. I recently got a new PC at my workplace and it came with a 50 GB Box.com account. Not that I'll use it, as I don't have any need right now. OneDrive is, as has been said, only 1 TB if you have an Office 365 subscription. Which is roughly the same price as Dropbox, so you could consider that route instead.

I have to ask:

Doesn't anyone worry about cloud storage security?

As in, anyone in the place shuffling through stuff? I know they aren't allowed/supposed to/can't....but really.

I am a staunch proponent of 2 onsite back-ups + one offsite. But I've yet to be convinced of a service 1st of all dependent on the business, but then also that your stuff is inaccessible if they go down for any reason.

I personally use Skydrive (free) & I've uploaded password-protected documents.

I cannot imagine the horror of uploading 4,000+ photos? And why?

Open to enlightenment- or just your personal uses, because I find it interesting & helpful,

Ta!

Yes, I worry about cloud security. Absolutely. Nothing confidential goes into Dropbox until I've encrypted it, using a standalone program that runs on my PC and which isn't part of Dropbox. I don't explictly upload 4000 (or however many I have) photos. I just point Dropbox at my main data folder (which happens to contain photos as well as hundreds of other things), and Dropbox just gets on with it. I don't even notice it happening. Even if it takes a month (which my initial upload to Dropbox did, when I started using it), it doesn't matter.
I suppose who are you trying to hid your files from. My main use of dropbox is to bypass iTunes and transfer books from my computer to my iPad.
After I went into a promo with Samsung mobile and Dropbox, which they promised to raise my limit from 2GB which was the free plan to 4GB, they actually increased it for 2 years for free by 48 GB.