Info - Overview

When you use a third-party service for your needs, whatever those needs may be, you're always taking on a certain degree of privacy risk.

When you upload files to a cloud provider, you really don't know how secure those files are or what the provider may or may not do with them. Will they scan them in some way? Will they delete files that match the hash of the copyrighted file, even if you have the right to use and store that file? Who has access to your files? How many people can access your photos, documents, and other files in a company with hundreds or even thousands of employees?

You'll never really know. You simply have to take the word of the company in question that nobody is looking at your stuff and everything is secure.

We all accept that, to a greater or lesser degree, because it's nearly impossible to live in the modern world without some sort of digital footprint and various connections to different social media, webmail providers, and storage companies, but it's worth stepping back and asking yourself if the convenience of a given service is worth giving that service access to some or all of your digital life.

Further, the legal processes for gaining access to your data are very different when you personally control that data on the hardware you own versus effectively leasing space from a third party to use their services.

If you frequent internet forums where people discuss digital privacy concerns and self-hosting tips and tricks, they might come off as a bunch of paranoid folks, but in the end, they're not wrong. We all trade a lot of our privacy away for the conveniences web-based services provide.