back to article Amazon pulls snouts from all-you-can-eat cloud storage buffet

Amazon has shuttered the flat fee-based unlimited cloud storage plan for Amazon Drive to all but paid-up members of the premium "Prime" service – who will only be able to store unlimited numbers of photos. "Primers" pay $99/year in the States; £79 a year in the UK; €69 in Germany; and varying prices across the rest of Europe, …

  1. Andy Non Silver badge
    Meh

    Luddite here.

    I'll stick to keeping my photos, data etc on encrypted USB drives. No fuss, no hassle, no downtime, no ongoing charges, no bandwidth hit and no risks of dodgy characters gaining access.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Luddite here.

      Why "encrypted"? Got a lot of "nature photos" there, matey!?

      1. Andy Non Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Luddite here.

        LOL, I also keep backups of emails, PDF bank statements, scans of important legal documents etc. Encrypting a drive is so easy, there's no reason not to do it. I'd rather such files are on media fully controlled by me, than in someone else's cloud.

        1. OnlyMee

          Re: Luddite here.

          I always encrypt my photos and reason is that along with normal photos I tend to have a copy of my passport pages, drivers license, pics of all my payment cards (for their numbers) proof of address and various other important documents that could be potentially be abused if stolen.

          I have traveled a lot and after getting my wallet stolen in Iran I have figured I always have digital copies of my documentation just in case. Besides my own USB copy and phone, I do also hold copies in my google account where I have 2-factor auth.

          This is for extra security which I know is trouble if I lose both my wallet and phone, but my partner's phone can unlock my google account as well. I don't trust that Google would not use my private documents for marketing purposes, but I do trust they won't leak them out as there would be no profit for them and it would come with a huge reputational cost.

      2. Julian 8 Silver badge

        Re: Luddite here.

        I leave a set at work, - encrypted and off site

        the ones I have at home for a weekly and monthly copies auto mount, unlock, copy, lock and then auto dismount - an ideal use for old HDD's that were replaced with SSD's and a cheap £5 caddy

        Like to thnk of it as an immediate protection against ransomware

        I do use some cloud backups as well

    2. Dave N

      Re: Luddite here.

      ...and no backups if your house burns down or the USB drive dies. Good luck!

      1. Stevie

        Re: Luddite here.

        Your house burns down you have larger concerns than the demise of your holiday snaps at which you never glanced in Lo! the last decade.

        There's all your MTG cards and your Star Wars action figure collection and your signother's wardrobe of shiny lingerie weekends for the brightening up of and your spider plant and your favorite reclining armchair and the stereo system and the flatscreen TV and all your vinyl records and CDs and your McNallly Grand Strumstick and the Nintendo consoles and your prized library of NES and SNES games and the painting you stole from Picasso, the lovely list goes on and on. Yes it does. Ahahaha.

        Oh, and the roof over your head of course.

        1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

          Re: Luddite here.

          There's all your MTG cards and your Star Wars action figure collection and your signother's wardrobe of shiny lingerie weekends for the brightening up of and your spider plant and your favorite reclining armchair and the stereo system and the flatscreen TV and all your vinyl records and CDs and your McNallly Grand Strumstick and the Nintendo consoles and your prized library of NES and SNES games and the painting you stole from Picasso, the lovely list goes on and on. Yes it does. Ahahaha.

          Fortunately, almost all the things I actually care about have legs and can escape. Although some of them might leave home when they realise that all the nice comfortable cusions/beds/wardrobe interiors have gone and the cat food has a funny burnt flavour..

      2. Andy Non Silver badge

        Re: Luddite here.

        @Dave N. You don't keep an off-site backup too? That's very reckless of you!

        Personally I keep a couple of encrypted backups with a relative. ;-)

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Luddite here.

      "I'll stick to keeping my photos, data etc on encrypted USB drives."

      Youngsters today...

      I'll stick to keeping my photos in shoe boxes under the bed, and the really important ones go in a fireproof safe. Don't need anything more high-tech than sunlight to view them again.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What's the rules on storing my encrypted database backups using stenography?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Or unlimited images of QR codes containing data:// URLs?

      If they complain these are not "photos" then display them on a monitor and take photos of it.

    2. Snorlax Silver badge

      Stenography?

      What's the rules on storing my encrypted database backups using stenography?

      It might take a while to type the contents of your database into a stenograph using shorthand, but sure, go for it...

      Or did you mean steganography?

      1. Martin Summers Silver badge

        Re: Stenography?

        "Or did you mean steganography?"

        There's always someone here that knows the big words! ;-)

        1. Stevie

          Re: Stenography?

          Isn't steganography the study of the anatomy of dinosaurs?

        2. Andy Non Silver badge

          Re: Stenography?

          Or sonography? Handy if you eat your words. ;-)

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not sure about Amazon Drive but I think that some of the "free" photo story services reserve the rights to perform potrentially "lossy" compression on the photos so you don;t necessarily get the same bits back that you put in to prevent this sort of thing

  3. G R Goslin

    Why not?

    Why not just bung in another HDD,? After all, installing a drive is not exactly rocket science. On the other hand, you can get a USB, 4TB external drive, plug in and go, for a few quid over 100. Not much more than a years subscription.

    1. Stevie

      Re: Why not?

      Agree. A couple of 4TB WD My Passport Ultras, a simple-as-piss script and you are set. Switch one drive out for a new one every couple of years or so if you are super paranoid.

      With three drives you could keep a backup in a safety deposit box too along with your Krugerrands, original copies of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, your Secret Bavarian Illuminati membership certificate and the secret gnash-words gifted to you and you alone upon joining The Dennis the Menace Fan Club (incorporating Gnasher's Fang Club).

    2. jMcPhee

      Re: Why not?

      Too old school and sensible. The neo-doofs can't say "oh, I'm in the cloud, the next really big thing in IT"

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why not?

      Or even better - install that drive at a friend's place and use Crashplan's free peer to peer backup to have an encrypted (you control the keys) backup offsite.

  4. Richard 22

    Shame

    Shame... not surprised though. Still appear to be one of the cheaper options for 1TB, and offer per TB pricing above this rather than 1 or 10 (as Google appears to be). As I currently have 1.5TB on Amazon Drive sticking with that and paying for 2TB @ £110/year is considerably cheaper than Google's 10TB option at $999 (/£799?)

    I'm investigating hubiC though - 10TB for 50Euro/year looks very competitive, and apparently connects to Synolgy Cloud Sync.

  5. steamrunner

    Pigs fly, Snowflake happy in Hell, Trump says something sensible.

    So, Amazon Cloud Drive (2TB=$119.98/yr) now technically more expensive than, of all things, Apple iCloud (2TB=$119.88/yr).

    WTF? This feels like the Twilight Zone or suddenly arriving in a parallel universe....

    Apple, of all people, have doubled their storage for the same price as before, whilst Amazon have realised their mistake with Unlimited and reigned it all in. The world has flipped on its axis...

  6. IGnatius T Foobar

    Archival grade media

    If all you need is archival grade storage, M-DISC drives and media may be the answer. Supposedly they last 1000 years (as opposed to regular DVD-R's which you're lucky if you get 1000 days).

    1. Martin Summers Silver badge

      Re: Archival grade media

      Thank you for this, I have been seriously wondering recently how my photos of my family will ever survive me as they're mostly on hard drives and cloud storage. It's a serious thought as to how my partner would ever get easy access to my data if something happened to me and the bill wasn't paid for Onedrive.

      1. fajensen
        Pint

        Re: Archival grade media

        It's a serious thought as to how my partner would ever get easy access to my data i

        Yup. Exactly. My wife would not be able to identify, never mind decrypt, the disk with the insurance policies and whatnot if I kicked the bucket.

        So we use plain-text paper, doesn't encrypt anything.

        If my holiday snaps are splurged over the internet ... so what, exactly? If the "nature shots" are splurged .... Welll, watching those will hurt You a lot more than it does Me (and maybe I can sue some media for some money over it).

        A lot of the "security" is in fact just like hand-loading a silver-inlaid and engraved musket that one spend to years perfecting before shooting ones foot with it, save the work and just shoot the foot directly, I say.

  7. fidodogbreath

    Priming the pump, feeding the beast

    Based on the Amazon Drive and Prime Photos Terms of Use, it appears that the main reasons they offer unlimited photo storage are to (1) harvest EXIF data, and (2) gain loads of samples with which to train their facial- and image-recognition algorithms.

    It's not clear what they do with this information. However, I think it's safe to assume that they do not spend jillions to collect it, store it, collate it against your purchases and web surfing across all devices, and store it for eternity purely to make your experience better.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: Priming the pump, feeding the beast

      ditto for Google.

      "We noticed that you like Aston Martins, perhaps you would like this slightly used DB5. Only £300,000. Buy?"

      Sorry, thanks but no thanks to using any cloud storage for anything but Cat Videos and since I don't shoot them or watch them, that rather moot.

  8. Stevie

    Bah!

    I have the answer: Zip Drives.

    1. fidodogbreath

      Re: Bah!

      Or Jazz drives, for those with larger storage needs.

      Now all we need is a computer with either a parallel port or a SCSI port...

      1. Kevin Johnston

        Re: Bah!

        Well that was a shock

        Just for giggles I had a search for a Parallel port card and I got tons of hits for PCI cards with parallel/RS232 ports. Makes me wonder if I should go back through my box of 'I may yet need this' kit to see what I could have another play with

        1. Martin an gof Silver badge

          Re: Bah!

          Just for giggles I had a search for a Parallel port card

          I bought an Asus AM1 motherboard last year (building a sub-£200 computer for my dad) and to my surprise found it came with an honest-to-goodness parallel port right there on the back panel alongside relative newcomers HDMI, DVI and USB3.

          I'd have been less surprised had it been a serial port, but while most boards still seem to have serial ports, everything I've bought recently has relegated the port to a header, meaning you need a breakout cable for a quid or two to make it usable.

          M.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Bah!

          Just for giggles I had a search for a Parallel port card and I got tons of hits for PCI cards with parallel/RS232 ports

          PCI-E cards, even. Most of the circuitry fits on one 50p chip.

      2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: Bah!

        Now all we need is a computer with either a parallel port or a SCSI port...

        I've got a number of SparcStation 1 units in the garage (don't ask!) along with a number of capatious 700MB drives.

        Will those do? I can't guarentee that they'll boot..

  9. Cuddles

    Unliminited "photos"

    So if I stick ".png" at the end of all my file names I can have unlimited storage?

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