Looking between 2 different cloud storage providers who have zero access encryption: MEGA and Filen. I need to store my photos and documents in my cloud drive. Which provider should I choose? What are the pros and cons of the privacy/security of each provider? What are your experiences with them? And how are the recovery options with each?
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Both are imperfect solutions with less-than-stellar security histories (Filen: Filen cloud storage by DanielProg39 Ā· Pull Request #345 Ā· privacyguides/privacyguides.org Ā· GitHub, Mega: MEGA Security Update - Mega Blog). Filenās clients are open-source and Megaās are source-available. I tried Filen briefly, and wasnāt blown away, but your mileage may vary. From a privacy and security perspective I think theyāre both fine for mild-moderate threat models. I wouldnāt store any super sensitive info there. I think Mega has a slightly better reputation than Filen just because itās been around a bit longer and has had more eyes on it.
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Iād use filen over MEGA because MEGA has been known to have serious security issues. Iām not 100% sure filen is actually secure, but if youāre worried you could encrypt files before you upload them. That way, you donāt have to trust your storage provider not to snoop/lie about security.
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I recently came across Filen and decided to give it a try. It appears to be a robust and reliable cloud storage service. Like MEGA, Filen also prioritizes privacy and utilizes end-to-end encryption. However, there are some notable differences between the two. While MEGA has servers located worldwide, Filenās servers are situated in Germany, operating under the jurisdiction of EU privacy laws. Filenās pro plans offer more comprehensive features compared to MEGA, although itās worth noting that Filen does not currently accept cryptocurrency payments. Another advantage of Filen is the absence of transfer limits, which is a definite plus. Ultimately, the choice between Filen and MEGA will depend on your specific requirements and preferences for cloud storage.
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Trusting either (and anything else) is pretty much impossible unless you are the one that encrypted the file is my opinion. You will lose some functionality that those providers offer, but if security is your #1 concern, encrypt files yourself and use whatever service is the cheapest.
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Iām going to do that for my temporary documents. But for my cloud backups, for photos and long term documents, and canāt encrypt those using Cryptomator or VeraCrypt. I need to access those on multiple devices.
Is Cryptomator available on Android? And does Cryptomator use a password to encrypt my files?
Does using Cryptomator increase my chances of losing access to my data? Especially since this is a cloud backup, I want to be able to access it in case my local backups fail. If cryptomator requires a password, Iāll use the same password as for my password manager.
Sure, Iāll use Cryptomator for my temporary files like documents and slideshows. But for things I need to access on my phone, like photos and videos, itās kind of hard to use client side encryption on those.
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you can buy it for a small price. It works fine and you contribute to the development of the software. Iām a fan
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Is my data encrypted using a password?
https://docs.cryptomator.org/en/latest/android/cloud-management/
All you need to know 
Why donāt you use a USB stick or is this old fashioned?
Or a Nas like synology? you can install nextcloud on it perfectly.
Personally I donāt use cloud services . You never know what happens to your data in the future or when they change their revenue model or their āterms of useā .
But if I had to choose between filen.io or mega.io I would go for filen.io.
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Filen!
Filen is audited(but not publicised yet), important ensuring thereās no encryption/security flaws. MEGA is not.
Filen also use ASE-256 encryption, MEGA use ASE-128.
Jurisdiction doesnāt really matter that much but MEGA is in the 5 eyes and Filen is in the 14 eyes.
Filen(the company) is not shady like MEGA(if you know the drama).
Both arenāt fully open source
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That is false.
All of our clients are open sourced on GitHub under the AGPL v3 open source license. - Filenās Offical Website (Filen ā Encryption)
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That is also false. They accept Crypto payments for one-time plan payments.
For monthly and annually (recurring) subscriptions we accept Stripe (Credit/Debit Cards) and PayPal. For one time payment plans we accept PayPal, Stripe and Cryptocurrencies. - Filen ā Pricing
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I would go with Filen IMO. I am using it and it is great, I use Cryptomator with some of my files and it works perfectly. The plans are stackable (including lifetime ones) which many providers donāt offer. In my experience their customer service is also really helpful and quick.
Filen is still a new company so they havenāt been āstress-testedā for as long as some other providers. Mega has been around for a while but has had a few scandals and issues in the past, so I just decided to stay clear of it.
I would also recommend not putting all your trust in Filen or any single cloud provider for that matter. You should always have copies of data elsewhere, including offline and online; you never know when something could suffer data loss or disappear of the face of the earth.
In the end, if it works for you and you are happy with it, that is all that matters.
Hope this helps 
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Proton Drive, Filen, Ente for just photos.
I appreciate the correction!
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I do, thatās my local backup of my data.
Need to put my data somewhere thatās not my house. Maybe I can set up my NextCloud server at a family memberās house.
Yeah, I have a local backup of my data on a USB drive. Do I need a copy of my data backed up on another cloud storage service? I think if my cloud storage provider of choice goes down, I should still have a local copy of my data so I can switch to another cloud service.
Tell me a little bit about the privacy of using Google Drive or DropBox with cryptomator.
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On an unrelated note, a flash drive backup is more unstable than your live environment, so consider changing mediums lol.
Do you have a chance to use Borg (which is what I use and recommend) or Restic? If you choose borg, there is BorgBase as an off-site backup location.
Your encrypted data is pretty much 100% āprivateā. All that differs is the data they ask you during sign up and usage.
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No problem! Happy to help
As long as you have a local backup of whatever you store on the cloud then that should be enough.
They cannot see your files as they are encrypted, however they will still be able to see certain meta-data;
"To allow a working synchronization with the cloud, there are some meta information that Cryptomator does not encrypt. These are:
- access, modification, and creation timestamp of files and folders,
- number of files and folders in a vault and in the folders, and
- size of the stored files."
~ Cryptomators Website - Security Target ā Cryptomator 1.7.0 documentation
In summary, they canāt see your files, but they can see some meta-data. This is the same for any cloud provider as the aforementioned meta-data is necessary for a cloud service to function.
Hope this helps
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