SpiderOak, the encrypted online backup and file hosting service, this week launched SpiderOakONE. SpiderOakONE is the paid service of SpiderOAK and has some interesting features to differentiate it from competitors.
Pricing for the online storage and backup is as follows:
- 2GB = Free
- 30GB = $7 per month or $79 per year
- 1TB = $12 per month or $129 per year
- 5TB = $25 per month or $279 per year
SpiderOak offers clients for all major platforms: Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, Android and iOS.
While SpiderOak’s free offering offers a relatively small 2GB of storage, the value add proposition it offers is “zero knowledge”. This means SpiderOak has no access or way of decrypting your data. Have you forgotten your password? You can get a hint you set at registration via email. That hint doesn’t make sense? You can’t access your data and there is nothing SpiderOak can do as the company has “zero knowledge” of your password/data/reset capability.
The focus on encryption and security of its customers data differentiates SpiderOak from competitors such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and so on. Edward Snowden, the US leakster, is quoted in The Guardian as saying “Dropbox is hostile to privacy, unlike ‘zero knowledge’ SpiderOak”.
Recently, there have been proposals to ban strong encryption in the UK. While that sounds like “zero knowledge” policy and legislation to us, SpiderOak may soon be either banned and illegal or a key communication tool for some.
I’m off to try and remember my password now.
Source: SpiderOak