Securing Your Life, Part 2 - Secure Backups + Newsletters
Free 5 GB to store important documents + separate your newsletters.
(This is part two of a three-part series. Read parts one and three)
If you experience a house fire, flood, or emergency where you suddenly need to leave - do you have automated backups of your important information and documents? Do you read any newsletters or materials that you would like to keep private? Here is how to set up both, quickly and easily.
Proton - 5 GB of free, private storage
The Swiss company Proton will give you 5 GB of free space to store secure, encrypted files and email in the cloud.
Is Proton Secure?
Proton has been highly reviewed by informed nerds, and scores well at keeping your data private and secure.
They are hosted in Switzerland, which seems to have good privacy laws, and are not part of spy-sharing organizations such as Five Eyes (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand)
They use strong, end-to-end encryption where their employees and tools do not have access to your emails or files.
They have hired other security companies to audit them to help improve their software.
They were stared by Tim Berners-Lee, one of the creators of the Internet, specifically to create a service that was private and secure.
Every Step Helps - Securing Some Things Is Better Than None
You may not be able to migrate your entire life to Proton. But with 5 GB of space you could certainly create a separate, private email account and upload copies of your important documents - emergency contacts, marriage licenses, medication lists, etc. Since creating an account is free, there is not much of a downside.
Improving Privacy - Separate Your Newsletters
How many email lists and newsletters do you subscribe to? Perhaps some of these are topics you would prefer to keep private?
By signing up for a Proton email address, you can migrate all of your newsletters to that account, separate from your main email. This gives you more privacy over what you read, and prevents companies from knowing exactly what you receive. It prevents companies from passing along that information to anyone else, as well as protecting against hackers and data breaches. You can choose any handle or name for your Proton email address - it does not have to be your real name.
Secure, Automated Backups
Proton Drive is a program you can install on your computer to automatically sync and back up selective files or folders on your computer. You can install it on your phone as well. This gives you a way to make sure your important folder of documents stays up-to-date in the cloud, so you have a copy.
Combined with a password manager and digital recovery key, you now have more control and resilience over your life and documents. Good luck!