Box, Google Drive, etc. How does it help?

[Total Noob]

I can't figure out what if any advantage I get by using Box, Drop Box, Google Drive or any of the similar ones over having a simple memory stick on my keychain.

Anybody have any comments on that?

Sticks are cheap enough: $4 for a 16 gb card, $60 for a 1 tb card, and certainly more flexible because you can use them off line or in your tv set or media player, and no hassle using them as backups because you can do a file compare and duplicate check and even to store what you should not have available to you.

I heard as a justification that it is possible in some cases for more than one user to work on a document at a time in some programs, but does it offset the security risk of having your files certainly scanned by the operator of the site and then left unencrypted and only protected from most hackers by a password? Plus most of these are limited to 1 GB or some other small number of bytes unless you pay more rent for storage than the cards cost.

Yeah, I guess I could completely lose my keys or my cards could die and I could lose everything, but I also make disc backups, and at least losing data is something I can control a little bit, as opposed to something being on line and unprotected or facing Denial of Service lapses, or being subject to blackmail fees if Google or whomever turns unscrupulous.

Plus it seems like uploading and downloading the stuff isn't efficient use of time.

So I'm inviting comments on the opposite side of using public storage. Thanks.

[zipulrich]

I don't see it as an 'either/or' thing. Both (online/offline) are valid solutions, depending on application and user needs.

Remember also, not everyone is as tech-savvy as you are. For lots of folks, throwing some vacation photos or pics of the grandkids on DropBox is an accomplishment.

I keep some work-related stuff in the cloud. It's not top-secret or mission-critical, and it allows co-workers in different locales access whenever they want without annoying me. Plenty of other ways they can accomplish that

[Ned Seagoon]

For what its worth in the main I avoid using off site storage, I don't feel comfortable handing over my property to others, despite assurances of security and confidentiality, who know what the future holds?