To change a little, here is an article about something related to the computer: cloud storage and privacy.
The great news is you don’t even have to read the article, the title says it all: I’ve switched to Filen as my cloud provider. Thx for stopping by, see you next time!
What? Why did I change to a new cloud provider and which one was I using prior to Filen?
OK, since you asked…
I was using iCloud. With the 2022 addition of ADP (Advanced Data Protection) Apple has really made iCloud Drive a simple and fully secured cloud storage using end-to-end zero-knowledge encryption. It’s really nice and simple to use with the only downside being that not all services in iCloud are compatible (iCloud Drive is) and that you cannot access iCloud Drive from a web browser anymore, or at least not as easily. Instead, you have to use Apple’s dedicated iCloud Drive app, which is only available for Mac, iOS, Windows.
What the effing eff is an end-to-end zero-knowledge encryption?
And why should anyone be bothered with such a mouthful?
As far as I understand it as a non-expert myself, it’s a means of making sure you and no one else can read your files by:
- encrypting them on your device before they are saved on the cloud.
- The zero-knowledge part is referring to the fact that you and nobody else own the keys required to unlock that encryption. So, even if someone were to breach your cloud or say, if Apple were to peek at my files, no one else could read their content. Not even Apple.
Why does it matter? People are endlessly arguing for or against the question of online privacy.
I can only share my own opinion on that question which is simply this:
Nobody can enter my home to look around as they see fit, not even our landlord. At least, not without my spouse or my explicit permission. If anyone was to enter without being invited, we could have them arrested. That’s normal, most people would say, it’s your home it’s private. Why then does my digital home, the place where maybe I don’t store my socks but where I do store my personal files, why should my digital home, the cloud, not be considered as private as my physical home?
People often say that’s because ’the cloud is someone else’s computer and not mine’. Sure, but the thing is that I don’t own the street where our home is built either, not even the entire building where we live, and we still are right to expect everybody to respect the privacy of our home. My digital home should not be considered less private because it’s made out of ones and zeroes instead of bricks and mortar.
Why not keep using iCloud?
Why search for something else if iCloud Drive can now respect my privacy and is working fine?
The first reason is that does not support Linux, and most likely never will be. I have been using Apple products since the 80s but now I am also using GNU/Linux, and I am not even certain I will own any other Mac in the future (sorry Apple, maybe try to make more durable & repairable products and I may reconsider).
Before ADP was a thing, I could access iCloud in my Web browser. That was not great but that was enough. With ADP, I can’t anymore.
The other reason is that I want to use non-GAFAM services. Ideally, alternatives from the EU. Why is that?
All GAFAM (which stands for Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) are US-based companies. Therefore they depend on US legislation which, in its current states, offers very little protection to their own citizens in regard to data collection and data usage (ie, a business ability to sell whatever data they collect about their users). And it offers even less protection to all non-US users, which includes me. On the other hand, the EU has the GDRP and a few other non-EU countries also have better laws than the US.
Selected services I considered
- The Swiss Proton Drive. For me it was an obvious choice since I’m already paying for their encrypted email service, Proton Mail. So, why not pay a little more and get the cloud storage I need from them too?
- Proton Drive offers no support for Linux. They promised it would come, but it has been a few years already and there is still nothing to be seen. Until it happens, I will not even consider them a viable solution.
- Proton Drive perfs are not the best. I could probably live with that, as I sync relatively small amount of data but their cloud is also not cheap and I’d rather spend my money on something that works well, and that works under Linux too.
- Microsoft One Drive, Google Drive or Amazon S3. They are all members of the GAFAM and they don’t offer full end-to-end zero-knowledge encryption (or not out of the box).
- KDrive. It’s Swiss, a country with privacy-friendly laws. It also works well and has a Linux app. It even comes with their own version of Google Docs and Sheets (KSuite), which is a nice bonus. But no zero-knowledge encryption, just their promise that they won’t read our files unless they absolutely need to. Even though I would have liked to use KDrive, a promise won’t cut it as far as trusting then with my medical, financial and any other personal files.
- pCloud. Swiss, too. Their offers are almost constantly on promotion. A practice I consider dubious, at best. Beside those constant promotions, two things really bother me:
- They are not transparent enough regarding encryption and privacy: it was not clear by reading their marketing that by default they reserve and do use the right to read all the files we upload on their cloud, and that even after we subscribe to their extra ’encryption service’ (not cheap) only a single specific folder will be fully encrypted and that this folder cannot be used to automate uploads, say for a backup.
- Even though I should not be concerned, it seems they have made themselves some kind of a reputation by deleting lifetime accounts that were using the cloud to store (and share?) copyrighted material. Sure, piracy is bad, but deleting one’s account is not much cooler if you ask me.
- Koofr, Interesting but only a single folder is fully encrypted.
- Tresorit. Interesting but too expensive for me.
- IceDrive. Interesting and rather cheap, but it is based in the UK which, privacy-wise, I consider as untrustworthy as the USA. Note that I would not trust France more in that regard.
- MEGA, interesting too but based in New Zealand, see what I just wrote about IceDrive.
- Yandex Cloud. Interesting and cheap, but no zero-knowledge encryption and the company is based in Russia. I’m fine with Russia and its people, I am a lot less fine with its leader and his very personal conception of freedom, international laws, and human rights. After the dude has been replaced by another freely elected leader, I could reconsider Yandex?
- rclone, cryptomator. Both are third-party utilities that add some kind of automated encryption layer over our files before sending them to almost any cloud provider. This sounds great and they both seem to work well. So, why not use them? Either they’re way more technical to use than what I can be bothered with (rclone docs is excellent but is also intimidating to not geek-me) and/or they’re still just a workaround to add a feature I consider should be the default for any cloud storage: privacy. And we all know a workaround can stop working without warning. Then, what? I lose access to my files?
OK, why Filen then?
It is a German company (EU country with decent privacy laws). It offers a Linux client (plus Mac, and Windows, and mobile). And it focuses heavily on user privacy and security, without any hacks required.
As a matter of fact, they don’t offer much beside that privacy and that security.
Next to their fully encrypted cloud storage, the only stuff they offer is a fully encrypted chat service and a fully encrypted web-based note-taking app. Both are accessible through a menu in their cloud app (there is no dedicated app), or through their website. I have not tested the chat but I have started using the note app. It does the job but it’s also barebone, don’t expect it to replace Apple Notes any time soon.
Filen perfs seem to be ok. I’ve been using it for a while now and have had no real issues and no excessive sluggishness — less than I have with iCloud.
The few sync errors I have faced were caused by my own fault, while I was testing the app and was playing with various files I screwed up a few things here and there. A few errors were real, though. They were all caused by some ‘filename too long’ warning. In my case, every single time, the files were indeed using a veeeery long filename and were also stored in a series of deeply nested subfolders which certainly did not help. I shortened those filenames and the issue instantly solved itself every single time.
Their price is reasonable and, depending on the amount of storage you need, you can choose between sub-based plans or a one-time ’lifetime’ plan — lifetime here referring to the lifetime of the company itself, not the life expectancy of the user, which is something worth keeping in mind as Filen is probably the smallest and the youngest of all those companies. Lastly, all their plans are stackable, meaning one can purchase multiple and get more storage doing so.
They have a free plan that ranges from 10GB up to 50GB without much limitation outside the obligation to regularly login in order to keep your account active, and a limitation on the number of… written notes you can create in their note-taking app.
To get up to 50GB free, one has to create an account by using an affiliate link (see at the end of this post, to use mine). Doing so, you get the base free 10GB plus an extra 10GB. Then, you will need to share your own affiliate link so you can get up to 30GB (max) of extra storage. One last thing worth mentioning: if you decide to switch to any paid plan, you will keep the storage from your free account, as a gift.
All of that is excellent but what made me instantly switch from their free plan to a paid one is when I realized how their sync is working.
how Filen sync works
I consider it’s how all cloud providers should work, not just Filen.
Unlike most other cloud companies, when you install Filen it doesn’t create a new ‘Filen’ folder somewhere on your computer, in which you’re supposed to save all the content you want to sync to their cloud. Which is a pain if you’re using more than one cloud or if, like me, you have devised a folder organization you don’t want to change.
Instead, Filen cleverly asks you to select which folders (one or as many folders as you want, including folders stored on external drives) and then asks you which folder(s) on the cloud you want to sync them with. It’s simple and I find that much more logical than asking the user to move all their files into some arbitrary new folder on their computer.
By default, Filen also does file versioning: any changed file won’t be replaced by the new version, a copy of the old one will be archived next to its new version. This can be turned off, by checking your settings on the website, not in the app itself.
And then, Filen can sync your files with the cloud but it can also backups, aka copying files and folders from your computer to the cloud only (or from the cloud to the computeronly). And you can select that option independently for each folder you added to Filen.
Negatives?
Not taking into consideration that Filen is a small and young company competing against very large ones, a ‘risk’ I am more than willing to take, I would say:
- I could not find a way to modify an existing sync/backup. I had to delete and recreate it.
- Files with too long a name can create sync errors. That said, I have not had this issue at all after that first few times.
- Filen is all about privacy. There is not bells and whistles. So, if extra features are your thing you will be disappointed.
- The iOS mobile app is working fine but it is also limited. It can backup photos and videos but only after you activated a few settings that were not that easy to understand. And then, it does the backup manually. One needs to launch the app for it to do the backup.
- The mobile app could be simpler. I would love to see a simpler/less daunting welcome page when the app starts. I would not mind simpler settings as there are a lot of them and quite a few were really puzzling to me. They would gain at being grouped away under some ‘advanced’ menu, imho.
- No Family plan. Maybe someday?
Conclusion
Despite the few issues I just mentioned, I’m now a paying customer of Filen. They check all the boxes for me, and I find their service to work well.
Did I stop using iCloud when I started using Filen? No, I don’t use iCloud Drive anymore but there are a few other iCloud services I still use regularly and will keep using until I can find a non-GAFAM, non-US equivalent.
What plan have I picked? Their Starter Lifetime Plan, 100GB of storage being more than enough to cover all my ‘important files’ needs ever. But I will keep an eye on their promo during the coming Black Friday, as I would not mind being able to store less important files too as a remote backup.
If you want to give Filen a try you need to create a free account. By using my affiliate link, you will get a 20GB free account (10GB base + 10 GB extra, I will also get the extra storage, at least for the first three of you using the link). If you refuse to use affiliate links, just go to their home page, https://filen.io/, where you can create a basic free account.
In any case, I think they are worth a try if you’re looking for a simple but fully encrypted and privacy respecting cloud storage that works on most devices, including Linux.
Published: 2024/10/09