Friday, February 27, 2015
Saving Private Data
We tell ourselves “once on the internet, always on the internet,” like maintaining content is a trivial thing. But it isn’t a trivial thing — at any time, the company that you rely on to keep your content for free could change their policies, or get bought out and change their policies, or decide they want to go public and change their policies, or simply go under and take your content with them.
The longevity of data requires more intent than this. My advice is to seriously consider migrating to a self-hosted site if you can. If you can’t make sure you export your data with some regularity.
Through some oh-so-very “Not Safe For Work” links (unless, of course, you work in the “adult industry,” in which case, the links are probably sfe) via Flutterby, Google Takes Back Adult Ban | /Slantist
If you consider your data important (and I think you should) and you are using a company to store (or manage) your data, then you must assume it can go away in an instant. No, really, the Internet is littered with dead companies that promised to keep your data “safe.” And you should keep you eye on the ones still alive, for there's no guarentee they'll be around tomorrow.
You might want to peruse The Archive Team while they're still around for more on this topic. Your data will thank you for it.
