Even if they are just a backup, all these companies scan your data for offensive material and report it to the authorities if their algorithm deems it fit. There have been plenty of cases of parents being investigated by the police just for taking photos of their kids on their phone.

For this I would only consider something client-side encrypted a proper back-up when using the cloud.

It depends on how you want to store it. You could store it encrypted. Any true backup worthy of the title should, in my opinion, be encrypted. Otherwise it's just a copy.

Surely you jest, you joker you. The number of problems with that idea far outweigh the benefits.

Should I go into detail?

Love your profile text, by the way.

EDIT: one quick example is that I’ve lost more data by forgetting passwords than I care to admit. They’ve all been from an age where I thought it was a good idea to encrypt my secret documents, lest prying eyes get to them. Turns out the secrets would’ve been interesting to me, but are no longer accessible. I suspect this isn’t uncommon.

Even if you don't care about all your data being published in the future, and even if you don't care about getting your data deleted (or door knocked in) because of a random content scanner false positive, you still need to encrypt them.

Many cloud storage services try to understand and then "clean up" file types they understand. If you don't believe me, upload and then download a TB or so of images, documents, music, videos, etc. Then, compare the checksums of the original and restored copies.

On top of that, there are services like Amazon Cloud Drive that have content-type restrictions.

The only reasonable litmus test I've seen in this space is "there is a cryptographic proof that some middle manager didn't screw up my backup".

Unfortunately, that means you need to manage the encryption keys somehow. Cloud storage kind of sucks.

> I’ve lost more data by forgetting passwords than I care to admit

This is a you problem. 100 percent PEBKAC.

I've been encrypting every backup, local and cloud, and plenty of other things, for probably 30 years. I've done my share of restores, and have never lost the only key to anything I later wanted back. That's true even though I have forgotten a few passwords, because I had failsafes for that situation.

This requires memorizing only three or four long passwords, which change very rarely, plus a little bit of discipline and occasionally some maintenance of your archives.

On the other hand, putting something somewhere, like some cloud service, without seeing all the implications, is a mistake that's easy to make and hard to clean up. Storing stuff in the cloud in the clear en masse is an insane thing to make into a normal part of your routine.

Many cases where a recovery from backup is needed are due to PEBKAC.

Please go into detail, I'm curious how encrypting your backups has more problems than benefits.

That sounds like a password management problem and not a problem with encryption.

Really? Do you have any source on that?

Do you just push to another remote that you host locally, or are you capturing other github items too? Like, for example, Issues and PR reviews/discussions?

I'm just capturing the code at a specific working version on external media. I'm not concerned about history and discussions since they are all small solo projects with low user bases (I suck).

Wait... You do realise the entire point of git is to store versions? You just git clone and you have everything.

Yeah, I don't want all the history and stuff. I also don't want any sort of upstream connection from it. I just want the code. A snapshot of a working repo with no connections or dependencies to anything.

Yeah, that's literally what a git clone is.

Never forget: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9966118

It's a little unsettling to see so many people argueing that mass corporate censorship is desirable, especially back in 2015.

As long as your repos are up to date, they are already backed up. Did you mean that or something more explicit?

I'll back my local up to a USB or a drive at a specific working version.

Even if the files are actually a backup it's not a good idea if it also gets your email/etc accounts nuked. Megacorps with many online properties are landmine fields because you can get banned from a dozen services for a BS 'violation' on just one of them.

That idea is true for the rest of those services too. We could just stop using all the services if they are all run by the same Corp and subjected to the same BS rules. If your Google drive got banned for explicit material, it's only a matter of time your Gmail would trigger it because you sent drafts between you and your publisher instead of using Drive.

If it's a true backup, it should be encrypted in my opinion, especially on the cloud. Then it doesn't matter since they can't see it.