ENThe recent years have introduced us to a countless amount of new technologies, new hacks, all in one way or another meant to improve, ease or brighten our lives. Starting with know-it-all Google, ending with a phone that fits a camera, calendar, calculator and basically whatever you want in your pocket, we have been able to witness some breakthrough innovations.
While the vast majority applauds this new era, there are some who stop for a second and worry about the Internet or that almighty phone of yours, knowing virtually everything about you. We put ourselves out there, oftentimes without realizing just how many people can have access to the timeline of our lives.
Why Should You Demand 100% Privacy?
The recent years have not only introduced us to marvelous perks, we have also been introduced to constant paranoia caused by uncertainty about our documents’ safety, especially if the stakes are higher than family pictures. The scandal behind the Snowden revelations is only the top of mind reminder that has contributed greatly to the public thinking twice if they are going to put their information up in the “cloud”. All of a sudden, a lot of us feel forced to forget about the convenience that cloud solutions entail, but does that really have to be the case? No.
Privacy policy
Most of the Cloud service providers will still go heads over heels to assure you that their product stores your information in the safest way possible, yet as Dropbox puts it “[they] have a small number of employees who must be able to access user data for the reasons stated in the privacy policy (e.g., when legally required to do so)”. You see, ever since 2011, the U.S. Government and its PATRIOT Act reserve the right to access any kind of document should they believe it contains intelligence needed to counter terrorism. We could go into a lengthy discussion about the extent to which the U.S. enforces this law, but one thing remains undisputable – the U.S. government can access your data if they wish to do so, and there is nothing Dropbox, Box or any other company in the U.S. can do about it.
Your data in the Netherlands
Contrary to what you might think, there is in fact a happy ending to this story and an easy answer to your uncertainty. Not even the mighty U.S. can exert its laws on the universe, or the whole world for that matter. There are countries, which don’t demand the right to your information, and the Netherlands happens to be one of them. The Netherlands is also a home to a cloud service provided that doesn’t need to write small letters in the privacy policy, because there is no going around it – your documents are 100% private, no government, no “small number of employees” involved. The Netherlands is also home to vBoxxCloud, and it can be the safe location where you store your documents if you don’t want to compromise between what’s convenient and what’s safe. So why should you demand 100% privacy, you ask? Because there is a way, and you have every right to do so.