Exactly, the solution of the problem is to only give encrypted data to cloud companies. This way they cannot collect any additional information from your data.

And when the average user forgets their password?

Then their data is gone. Now you just have to figure out what's worse for you. Somebody else getting your data or losing your data and you know whether encryption is for you.

Put the password in escrow somewhere when you start.

How do you secure the escrow?

Don’t be the average user.

That’s a very dismissive attitude. If you want to make the world a better place, you have to accommodate the average user; One can’t say, “you’re not smart enough for our service.”

If you’re serious about the security of your data, you need to know how to pick a password you will remember. There are things in this world that we ask of average people that are far more difficult. In 2020, picking and remembering a password should be table stakes at this point. It’s not 1997 anymore.

The key word there is “if.” Most people don’t care about the security because they’re unaware of the risks involved. Stories like this blow over in a week or two.

Most people don’t want to lose their stuff because they forget a password. That’s why unencrypted data and password resets are a thing.

What we as tech people should be doing is educating and helping those people. Set your family up with a NAS for local backup and have it mirror to, say, Backblaze. Set your parents/grandparents up with a password manager. Etc.

Easier said than done:

- If you share something, you need a way to share the key

- Things like a truecrypt drive work poorly with file sync clients