The Cloud Is Someone Else’s Computer (Where Your Data Goes) - Family IT Guy Podcast | Lyssna här

When you save something to the cloud, it does not float in the sky. It goes to a real building full of computers that a company owns, and that company can usually read what is stored there.

Ben spent years designing and running data centers, including one for the F-18 fighter jet program, so he can show you what "the cloud" actually is: warehouses full of servers in real cities, keeping copies of your photos, messages, and files. You cannot realistically quit the cloud. What you can control is whether the companies holding your data can read it. That comes down to encryption, which means scrambling your files so only a private key can unlock them, and who holds that key. If you hold it, only you can read your files. If a company holds it, they can too.

Ben shares the services he pays for and uses himself for this: Proton for email, files, photos, and passwords, and Signal for private messages and calls. Start by moving one thing you care about to a service that hands you the key.

Proton: https://proton.me

Signal: https://signal.org

Chapters:

0:00 Where your data really goes

0:40 What the cloud actually is

1:12 Watch the data leave a computer

2:52 How to keep private things private

3:32 Why this matters for our kids

Watch the whole series, How the Internet Really Works: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc3jDQHQdQek