Why My-Stash
Natural disaster strikes any time, and it is necessary to have a private document and photo stash that holds your important legal, health, and other records, as well as your family pictures. Hurricanes, wildfires, and other events allow as little a five minutes to get out or be consumed in the disaster. Preparing for any of these situations requires up front work to scan and upload the files, and giving access to the right people is a major project that cannot start soon enough. Definitely back up your important information: if you make paper copies and mail them to a relative that is better than not having any backup at all. After Katrina and wide scale disasters, even City Hall records are destroyed, so counting on municipal paper records is not reliable. The selection of the place you store your information and photos, is important, and My-Stash handles many obvious questions that should be asked about conventional cloud file storage services.
Alternatives to My-Stash
There are many options you should consider, depending on your desire for privacy and comfort level of strangers having access to your legal and health documents, and your family photos. More details on alternatives are discussed on a separate page.
There are many options you should consider, depending on your desire for privacy and comfort level of strangers having access to your legal and health documents, and your family photos. More details on alternatives are discussed on a separate page.
How is My-Stash better?
Cloud storage - My-Stash one time cost of getting your own system, vs ongoing rental of an online cloud storage service:
Cloud file storage is everywhere, and many services will offer a small amount, say 5 to 7 gigabytes.
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You choose what capacity to set up. 8 Terabyte drives are now available for less than $200 and can be added at will. MicroSD cards easily and compactly store up to 64 or 128 gigabytes.
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Who has access to your files? Even if you trust the cloud provider's privacy policy, you also have to trust the technology will not be compromised. See Experian and OPM failures.
Employees and support staff at most cloud storage service providers, can see all your files and photos. If the file is under the service provider's control, they can alter it and affect its integrity. [Understood that it is not permitted under most terms of service and agreements, but technically they can unless you either encrypt the files yourself, or verify the file integrity yourself]
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You control access (read only, or read and update) to the specific parts of your private stash. Medical records and health care advanced directives can be shared with your health care proxy, last will and testament can be shared with your power of attorney or your legal representative, and photos can be shared with your family members. You also control where backups are made, and you can set up two stashes in different geographical locations so natural disaster in one location cannot affect your data in the other.
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Where are your files copied / backed up? With My-Stash, you control the media and who has access to what files.
Cloud / internet based file storage and sharing services back up files to destinations not readily known to consumer account holders.
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You control the physical media where your documents and photos are stored. If you wish to take them offline, just unplug the unit or shut it down.
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