The trade
Convenience is rented, not owned.
Hosted storage is genuinely excellent. It is redundant, it survives fires, it follows you between devices, and it costs almost nothing. For photographs and documents it is the right answer.
The terms are less appealing for the few secrets that open everything else. Accounts can be suspended, migrated, breached or inherited by a new owner with a new policy. None of that requires anyone to do anything wrong.
We are not against hosted storage. We think the handful of secrets that unlock the rest deserve a different arrangement, one where the copy is yours, physically.
Two kinds of custody.
Who can reach it
- Rented
- You, and whoever operates or compels the service.
- Held
- Whoever is holding the card, and only with your password.
Failure mode
- Rented
- Account lockout, policy change, breach.
- Held
- Loss or damage of a physical object.
Recovery
- Rented
- A support process you do not control.
- Held
- One of your other two cards.
Best used for
- Rented
- Everything ordinary.
- Held
- The few things that open everything ordinary.
Rent the convenience.
Own the keys.