Are genealogy and cloud computing really compatible?

[elfinblues]

Hi everyone. I'm wondering what people here might make of the idea of embracing cloud computing for my genealogy, and of the potential risks of doing so?

My situation is this: I have a young family and a full-time job, so my time to work on researching and writing up my family history is very limited - largely to occasional evenings and even more occasional lunch hours, in fact. I keep my digital files on my home laptop, but would love to be able to access them remotely - for when I get a chance to work on them from my desk at work, or on business trip journeys, for example.

I have also come to appreciate the "backup" advantage having my files stored in the cloud would give me, as opposed to using external hard drives and the like.

But... (and it's a big but)... I worry about security and privacy. By their very nature, a lot of family history documents are very personal - and not just to me, but to my relatives. Putting my own birth certificate into Google Docs, Dropbox, OneDrive or the like would be one thing; putting my relatives' documents there too would be another. Quite aside from making such documents available to snooping organizations like Google, it would surely leave me and others open to the possibility of identity theft, too.

There are, I know, far more secure online backup services than the likes of Google Docs, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive - things like Backblaze, SpiderOak and Carbonite -  but if you use them then you generally have to sacrifice some of the syncing/collaboration/productivity tools which are the very appeal of Google, Dropbox and Microsoft.

So, I'm left wondering if this might just be a pipe dream, that genealogy and cloud computing really aren't all that compatible.

Is there anyone who could convince me otherwise? I'm sure that it would be feasible to just keep your current working documents within something like Google Docs and to keep more sensitive personal files backed up to a properly secure, encrypted online backup service, but I don't really want to scatter my files around different online locations. I want to have everything in one place. What I would really like is to find somewhere that I could both securely store my genealogy files AND work on them from different locations.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and opinions, and I really look forward to hearing what people think/what others might do with their own digital files.

Cheers!

[philipsearching]

But... (and it's a big but)... I worry about security and privacy. By their very nature, a lot of family history documents are very personal - and not just to me, but to my relatives. Putting my own birth certificate into Google Docs, Dropbox, OneDrive or the like would be one thing; putting my relatives' documents there too would be another. Quite aside from making such documents available to snooping organizations like Google, it would surely leave me and others open to the possibility of identity theft, too.

For me, that would be the deal-breaker.

Would you put details of living relatives on an open tree (Ancestry, GenesReunited or whatever)?  Despite the inconvenience, a lightweight external drive or memory stick has to be a safer option.

Philip

[3sillydogs]

I started using the cloud after a hard drive failure lost me my research and had to spend many hours redoing it.  External hard drives can also fail.  I have a gmail account so it was convenient to use Drive as a storage.  The files are stored on a secure server and unless I share them with others, which I can if I choose to, they are said to be secure.  (Apparently you can password protect individual folders if you have an iPad)

It is easy to access them from any of the pc's that I use, which I found handy as I have been using a programme to sort my photo's and documents which unfortunately doesn't run on my old desktop but does on the laptop.

I would imagine it is as safe as anything you use on the net, as long as your password is secure.

I have access to Drop Box (mainly because I found it fiddly to use, but that's just me) and One Drive but haven't used them as yet.

[JAKnighton]

I know that in Google Drive you can control the privacy level of each individual document and folder, so that people can be invited only to view certain files.

If your concern is that Google itself may snoop into your personal information, then that's another matter.

[PaulStaffs]

If you just need sharing with a limited number of people why not encrypt to a single file, upload to Drive or wherever and give them the password? My family history data and around 1600 images takes about 20 seconds to compress into a password protected archive totalling around 0.6GB and uploads to Dropbox quickly enough.

Depending upon your set up and technical ability you could have belt and braces automatic cloud back up - there are lots of ways to do this. For example, install Dropbox and create a Drive account. Write a small batch file (or shell script on Linux) which runs at start up on your main computer. Have the script compress your data into a password protected archive, copy it to your Dropbox folder and a sync'ed Drive folder (and maybe elsewhere on your hard disk for safety). You now have two cloud back-ups encrypted and accessible from anywhere with the password. If your pc breaks you have two back ups. If either or both cloud accounts are compromised the files are encrypted.

[3sillydogs]

My computer backs up to Drive everyday, I have chosen the files I need updated, eg I don't upload my Download folder, but my genealogy folder and photos etc are backed up everyday from the pc's and my phone. 

If I want to share something I can attach a link via an email to the documents or folder in Drive.  I have also started using a programme called Tropy which stores my photos and documents in folders (I needed to sort them out) I will upload that to Drive as well.

[Mike Morrell (NL)]

Good question and one I hadn't thought about much until now (my tree data is replicated on Ancestry.com).

I consider my cloud storage (Dropbox and the like) to be 'reasonably secure' through password protection but not watertight. So I always assume that there a risk (however small) that my accounts could possibly be hacked at some point in time. For that reasson, I avoid storing any 'personal' or 'sensitive' documents in the cloud (except via an encryted on-line back-up service).

Personally, I don't have copies of any 'vital documents' for living people in my tree because I don't feel I need them yet. The living (and recently deceased) people in my tree are identified on the basis of 'my personal knowledge and testimony of them' + supporting birth/marriage indexes showing the year/quarter/district of 'past events'). This is no more information than my living relatives often share indirectly (birthdays, anniversaries) on Facebook.

If you have 'vital records' of living people, you can choose not to store them in the cloud (or on Ancestry.com). Just keep them in a separate folder on your home Laptop and summarise the info for further research. If you're worried about privacy, you could also 'encrypt' the data using a separate password on your Laptops.

Mike

PS. I'm now going to tighten up my privacy/security on Ancestry.com

[Mart 'n' Al]

I'm very open and have nothing to hide.  I've worked with computers all my life.  They do go wrong, they do let you down, they do get hacked, but I believe the contents of your weekly rubbish bag say as much about you as your computer does.  There are many millions of people more interesting than me, to hack first.  I have 70,000 photos on Flickr, including those of children, and no harm has come to any of the subjects.

Martin