Can Other People Access My Files I Store in the Cloud?

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Question

About the cloud… Is there any guarantee that a company, Google, for instance, could not make use of the information which you saved to the cloud? Do agencies and businesses with extremely confidential information (like law firms and mental health agencies) use the cloud? Is there legislation about cloud confidentiality? – Janet H.

Answer

This is an excellent question but one that I can only answer indirectly. The reason is that there is no way for me to know exactly what a company can and can’t do with the files you store in the cloud. You could try reading the pages and pages of each company’s terms and conditions but who wants to do that?

Here’s what I can tell you. If you store your files in the cloud, there will always be the chance that someone can gain access to those files, either legally or illegally. So while your neighbor next door might not be able to gain access to your files, a professional hacker probably could. And certainly, Google could be forced to hand over your files given the right subpoena.

If this bothers you, I would suggest avoiding cloud storage altogether. Or at the very least make sure the cloud storage service you choose uses the highest level of encryption on your files. When your files are encrypted even if someone gains access to your files, they won’t be able to make a bit of sense of them without the encryption key.

Company’s “Use of the Information”

As for the part of your question asking if a company could “make use of the information” in your files, once again the answer most likely lies in the terms and conditions for that company that you agree to when you sign up for their service. Me personally? I assume the worst and then decide if I am still comfortable moving forward.

I can tell you that I wouldn’t keep the account numbers to all of my financial institutions and the passwords to all of my online accounts in my cloud storage account, no matter what level of encryption they use. Yet, on the other hand, do I care that Google scans all of my emails for keywords in order to deliver relevant ads to me while I’m checking my email? Nope, I couldn’t care less.

So in the end, it’s all about your comfort level and if you’re not comfortable storing files in the cloud, then don’t do it.

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