I’m considering taking a paid plan for cloud storage to keep a copy of all my data (photos, videos, and documents) on cloud. This Black Friday, I want to buy a lifetime plan for Filen, or even an annual plan would be better.
During a discussion, my friends mentioned that Ente uses stronger encryption than any zero-knowledge encrypted cloud storage like Filen. They showed me some screenshots from AI chats claiming that Ente employs stronger encryption. Moreover, they mentioned that Ente has been audited multiple times, making it far better than Filen at least in terms of privacy.
These conversations have made me rethink my choice. I don’t want to use dedicated encryption software this time, so I decided to go with any client-side encrypted (basically zero-knowledge encrypted) options such as Filen or Tresorit or Proton Drive.
Mostly, my data consists of photos, videos, and some important documents. The Ente Locker app has been released on the Play Store as early access, so I have two options: either go with Ente Photos and Ente Locker together or go with a dedicated client-side encrypted cloud storage.
My main priority is privacy; price is not a consideration factor here. So, what should I choose for better privacy?
Commonly Suggested Solutions and My Reasons for Not Using Them
Why not self-hosting? I don’t feel too comfortable with self-hosting, so even if I choose Ente, I’ll never self-host it.
Why not a physical storage without any online dependency? I already maintain a copy of my entire data on an external HDD. However, due to the need to access it from anywhere without carrying an external device, I’m planning to use a cloud-based service this time.
I also thought that an encrypted cloud storage service can’t provide weaker privacy than a service like Ente Photos, even if the latter has undergone audits.
Either both are equal in privacy, or cloud storage options are more private. Still, I have some doubts in my mind, which is why I made this post.
I’ve seen that. I couldn’t go with these options because:
Proton Drive falls under the Proton ecosystem, and I don’t want to use multiple products from one provider. I rely heavily on ProtonMail, so I didn’t choose it.
Tresorit is owned by Swiss Post, and the situation in Switzerland is not very stable; that’s why Proton is already planning to shift from there.
Due to its less popularity, I don’t want to use Peergos. I’m already trying the Psono password manager based on PG’s recommendation, and it feels like I’m using an app from 2015 or earlier, so I don’t want to feel the same here.
According to the team, Filen is not on their recommendation list because they still haven’t undergone a third-party audit. I’m quite hopeful that they will do it soon, so I’m choosing it.
Of course, no two e2ee protocols / features / apps are created equal. There will be differences, sometimes subtle even (as it is with all cryptography, whose guarantees are broken even due to the slightest misuse). You’d have an easier time if someone (preferably multiple independent experts) had already put in the effort to compare / review the two.
For now, in the matters of e2ee, it might be a bit too premature to rely on a LLM (like Devin or Copilot) for crypto-analysis of the codebases (unless you know how to prompt and what to look for), though it is definitely worth a try, and you may use it as a hint and then you draft questions to the app developers (I imagine they’ll otherwise get annoyed if the questionnaire was itself authored by a LLM).
That said, since Ente Locker is not meant to be a generic Drive (they’re giving it away for free for whoever is on Photos paid plan), I’d not use it as such: Ente Locker - New app from Ente - #19 by vishnukvmd
Additionally, specifically since you’re worried about privacy, you may want to consult the respective privacy policies (ente) and ToS (ente).
The best bet of course is to self-host a solution yourself (possible with Ente, and I believe they have plans to make self-hosting “1-click”), but that brings with it its own effort & head-aches.
Tresorit is owned by Swiss Post, and the situation in Switzerland is not very stable; that’s why Proton is already planning to shift from there.
I’d personally argue that for you as a customer this is less of a concern in the short or medium term as Switzerland is a notoriously slow country and such changes would not be likely to come into effect sooner than 5-10 years.
And those 5-10 years are a long time in the tech world. Who knows what would happen in the meantime.
Proton of course has to plan more into the future being a business but you also never know what the EU is going to do especially looking at Chatcontrol.
