When it comes to providing a service, often Big Tech opts for convenience over quality. When we trust Big Tech with our data, we expect that they’re going above and beyond to protect and secure our files. The truth of the matter, however, is that Big Tech has an agility problem. They are held back by their own size, their old ways, and the desire to cater to the widest possible audience. Because of these factors, Big Tech will never truly be on the cutting edge of file security.
Privacy
When it comes to privacy, we all understand that Big Tech has an abysmal track record. Businesses like Facebook and Google have built their empires on the backs of our privacy. In fact, these days it’s nearly impossible to find a service that hasn’t been built to pull your information from you. Everything from mobile games to photo editors has been redesigned to prioritize the ability to serve ads with unsettling precision. We also have to worry about these massive tech giants handing your information over to the government.
There is an obvious conflict of interest when Big Tech companies offer private storage, encrypted communication, or personal file-sharing services. When these are offered for free, they tend to collect that payment in the form of your personal information. This standard disregard for personal privacy is why the FBI is able to pull Whatsapp conversations right out of the air whenever they want. These privacy risks also come with a security risk. Backdoors create vulnerabilities. An unauthorized third party could get access to backup encryption keys, giving them unfettered access to data that presents itself as secure.
When selecting a file-sharing service, privacy should be your primary concern. The right file-sharing service will forfeit the ability to create a backdoor into your private storage.
Security
The security that Big Tech can provide is far from the bottom of the barrel. Google Drive, for example, deploys incredibly robust encryption when storing and sharing your files, but Google Drive lacks a truly decentralized server structure. This means that a sufficiently sophisticated breach of Google’s servers would lay bare every single file that the people have trusted Google to protect. Centralized server structures in the age of security breaches have become a massive point of vulnerability all over the internet. The centralized internet is beginning to fall behind the times.
True data security comes from decentralizing your storage. Splitting your files up into a series of secure servers creates security in the form of redundancies and reduced vulnerabilities. When a hacker breaches a decentralized storage system, they are only capable of getting access to a fraction of the data they were in search of. This means that even in the unlikely event of a breach, bad actors will come back effectively empty-handed.
Features
Big Tech has to please so many people in order to keep them coming back to their products. This has created services that are slow to respond to trends in security and technology. Think of how hard it is for Instagram to outcompete social media newcomers. The slow-moving adoption of fresh features means that Big Tech may offer convenient solutions to common problems, but they will forever be on the back foot when it comes to cutting-edge file-sharing and storage solutions.
Google Drive, for example, lacks a solution for securely retrieving data from a party outside of the Google ecosystem. A file-sharing solution that offers secure fetch has a leg up on the tech giants by offering more bespoke solutions to individual problems. Sending large files is also commonly gated behind a steep paywall, if not entirely impossible. In service of the lowest common denominator, Google Drive and Dropbox are unable to package together services like eSign or expiring shares.
Get Ahead of the Curve with AXEL Go
AXEL Go is the file-sharing service that has been built to outperform the big guys. We provide a unique suite of features, making us the perfect solution for security-minded businesses or individuals that are fed up with handing over their private information in exchange for Big Tech’s lackluster services. Our eSign features come standard, consolidating the process of trading legal documents, we deploy a decentralized server structure to keep hackers guessing, and we have built our file-sharing service to offer top-tier security with a single click
