It does offer the advantage of being able to access your stuff from anywhere you are, as long as you've got an internet connection and the service providers don't let you down.
Me, I've only bothered using the cloud to familiarise myself with how to use it, never for anything serious or private in any way. I get a long way by carrying flash drives with me on my travels. A lot of programs can be got in portable form so more or less any Windows device can be used to run them. Flash drives are private as long as you don't lose them, and you can always encrypt things in case you do. Not that a lost flash drive is all that likely to fall into evil hands. Some individual might take a look, but they'd probably decide the files aren't worth anything, and reformat the whole thing. Even so, it's likely wise to refrain from putting files on there that could be used against you, like banking login details. Or if you must put such files on the drive, obfuscate and encrypt them to reduce the risks. All in all, probably safer than uploading the data into cyberspace. And obviously, it's wise to keep a backup of all your data elsewhere, whether the "original" is on a flash drive or in cyberspace. Drives can die.
Some programs these days are cloud-only, often as a way of getting users to pay a monthly subscription, so I just don't bother with those. It's very rare I pay for a program anyway. I just keep using freeware, mostly quite old freeware.
03 Dec 2024, 3:24 pm
