Are My Online Photo Safe?
Having your photos online seems like the best way to share and connect with family. But, is online storage safe as an archival option?
The answer can be a resounding mixed bag of both yes and no!
Online service providers are spending millions of marketing dollars to convince you they are doing everything possible to protect your photos and keep them safe. However, since you do not have physical control of the media upon which your photos are stored, it is possible something could happen that could hinder you from ever accessing your photos, despite a valid claim to them.
Living Through A Nightmare!
Currently, 25 million gigabytes' worth of ‘in-the-cloud’ data sits on more than 1000 servers that have been powered down. It's a cache of data roughly equivalent to half of the Library of Congress and nobody quite knows what to do with it.
According to the Associated Press,"Tens of millions of digital files kept on Megaupload.com went dark earlier this year. Megaupload was a cyberlocker of sorts, a service that offered individuals and businesses storage space for digital files. But in January, the federal government seized most of the company's assets and charged its founders with running a criminal enterprise designed to facilitate the illegal sharing of copyright-protected movies, music and TV shows.”
Before its closure MegaUpload had 180 million registered users and an average of 50 million daily visits, claimed a total visitor history of more than one billion, and accounted for about four percent of all global Internet traffic, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
The MegaUpload seizure shows how personal files hosted on remote servers operated by a third party can easily be caught up in a government raid targeted at digital pirates.
Keep Grounded With the 3-2-1 Back-Up Plan
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) was awarded funds by the United States Library of Congress through its National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) for the Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow (dpBestflow®) project. Included were the development of best practices using simple guidelines for backup of your photos.
Behind the concept of backup developed by the ASMP was the 3-2-1 Rule, designed to make it easy and simple to remember how to backup your images safely. This rule included the guidance of;
3 - Keeping 3 copies of any important file.
2- Keeping files on 2 different media types.
1- Keeping 1 copy of the backup stored offsite.
While all 3 concepts are are important, the focus of this article is to remind you that your photos need to be backed-up using some OTHER media than just an ‘in-the-cloud’ solution to avoid the potential ‘lost-in-space’ syndrome!
 | Digital Directions sponsor E-Z Photo Scan can help you get started archiving your photos digitally! Click to learn more. |
