How do you store your cloud files? I did it on Google Drive. And to be honest, Drive works well. I already had a Google account, it’s easy to use, it comes with 15 Gb of free storage.

But, as always, if you’re not paying, you’re the product. Google can access my personal files and they’re doing it. For example for their AI features.

If you’re like me, you don’t want some random AI to access your data. Even more so since I didn’t ask for it. It’s time to abandon ship and find a better harbor for my files.

Security by Design

Why is Drive so bad? It’s a problem that most classic cloud storage providers have: They are not secure by design. The provider (Google) can access the content of all files. The same goes for a hacker that managed to break their systems. A rouge employee. The US federal government.

The problem can be solved by designing a system where the provider can’t access the files at all. This is done by encrypting them with (some derived secret of) the user password. The user password is never shared with the provider => Your data is secure. This is called an end-to-end encrypted system.

A second concern is a conflict of interest: Why would Google generously offer 15 Gb of free storage to me? Their core business is selling ads based on user data. They need as much user data as possible. So Google doesn’t have a strong incentive to implement an end-to-end encrypted system that is secure by design.

The solution here is clear: Pay for your service or host it yourself to remove the conflict of interest.

CryptPad

Luckily I’m not alone with my privacy concerns and some people smarter than me have created a solution to the cloud file storage problem: CryptPad. As the name suggests, CryptPad is an end-to-end encrypted file storage. Whoever is running their software can’t see the files of their users. Only the user with their password can access them.

How much friction does the end-to-end encryption add?

Well, none. If you’re surprised, rest assured that I expected some quirks too. The whole system works extremely well. You log into your account, as you would do in a classical system, and you’re good to go. There’s no app, everything runs in the browser. And that’s totally fine. It just works.

Collaboration

Google Drive comes with the ability to share documents, even to edit them simultaniously with other people. Can CryptPad do this too?

Yes! And boy does it work well. I’m using a CryptPad document as a shared shopping list with my girlfriend. It’s awesome in how boring it is. It just works. You do an edit. You instantly see it in the other browser window. So simple.

What about shared access?

No problem either. You can share access to other users on the same instance, like you can with other Google Drive users. You can also share access via a link, where anybody with the link has access to the files. This works by putting the secret encryption key in the link. So even in this case the provider can’t access the data, unless you give them the link.

File edit history?

Yes.

Hosting

There’s a flagship instance, cryptpad.fr. It’s run by the authors of CryptPad. The usage fee is used to improve the product. If you don’t know where to start, that’s a solid choice.

I chose to go a different route though. I’m a proud member of the private.coffee association. We’re hosting an instance for members with 5 Gb of storage. The association shares the hosting costs among its members. It’s a great concept in my opinion. Timothy Snyder said it in “On Freedom”: An individual can only be free with the help of other free individuals.

Summary

If you were looking for a Drive alternative, look no more. CryptPad offers everything I need and chances are it fits your bill too.

Go check out CryptPad today! Maybe read “On Freedom”. Help yourself to loosen the chains of Big Tech a little bit and recover some digital freedom.

Discussion

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