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Is a FOSS decentralized peer-supported backup service feasible? (lemmy.wtf)

submitted 20 hours ago by nitroemdash@lemmy.wtf to c/opensource@programming.dev

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While Apple has iCloud and M$ has OneDrive, both offering 5 free GB of storage, most Free backup services written for Linux are focusing on saving your data to your own hard drive lying next to your computer. That is troublesome and not the most reliable as in case of a house fire or a flood it will burn or drown along with the machine. Some offer an option to buy some storage from a third-party provider like Amazon, but that's again non-open and troublesome.

Is a free&Free peer-supported service possible? Where, similar to torrent tech and PeerTube, you allocate some storage on your PC to someone's backups, and can publish your data on the network in return, so that data would be distributed between computers and could be requested on demand?

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[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

Where, similar to torrent tech and PeerTube, you allocate some storage on your PC to someone’s backups, and can publish your data on the network in return, so that data would be distributed between computers and could be requested on demand?

I appreciate your goal, but this sounds like a privacy nightmare and extremely dangerous legal minefield. Most data worth backing up is important to keep private. If whatever encryption you're using is discovered to be vulnerable to realistic decryption by a third party, then you'll have the seeds (no pun intended) planted for your data theft even before knowledge of the vulnerability exists.

The legal angle is even more worrisome. Imagine if the person you gave backup space to on your network decided to store legally objectionable material in your house on your machines. You would be subject the penalties. Big companies get around this legal landmine by having Service Agreements and attestation that you won't be storing that kind of data.

The cheapest method for off-site secure personal backups would be to get a bank safe deposit box and an external hard drive.

[–] nitroemdash@lemmy.wtf 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Well, the internet runs on encryption. If the algorithm behind HTTPS is cracked, no conventional data storage service is safe. Overall I'm quite confident modern post-quantum encryption is quite secure for the task.

As for the legal staff, well, PeerTube works the same by sending arbitrary content through your device and no one got in trouble.