Ways to Secure your personal Data

My first goal in creating this website was to share my experience, and to try making the implementation of alternatives to GAFAM as accessible as possible.

My Experiences

Owncloud (to replace Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud…)

A few years ago, I tried Owncloud and its mobile app. At this time, I only wished to replace my Dropbox by something else that was completely controled by me.

• Server
  • Hardware
    • Raspberry Pi 3
    • 2 external 1TB hard drives in software RAID 1
  • OS : Raspbian
  • Software :
    • mdadm
    • Owncloud (and its prerequisites)
• Mobile
  • OS : iOS & Lineage
  • App : Owncloud
• Uses
  • file backup from the PC
  • file sharing (PC & Mobile)
  • Automation of photo upload from mobile phone
  • Access to files from my mobile

Nextcloud (to completly remove Google and Apple from my phone… from my life!)

Later, I wanted to compare with Nextcloud in a similare case of use but going further : be the only one who manage my personnal data related to my activity on my mobile phone.

I installed it on an Ubuntu (recommended OS for Nexcloud by the Nextcloud team) virtual machine managed by a more powerful server powered by an Intel Xeon processor with the OS Debian

• Server
  • Hardware
    • Intel Xeon Computer
    • 6x 500GB hard drives including 5 in software RAID 5
  • OS :
    • PC : Debian 10
    • Nextcloud VM : Ubuntu
  • Software
    • PC
      • mdadm (RAID controler)
      • libvirt, qemu & kvm (Virtual Machine Mangement)
      • nginx (reverse proxy)
    • VM
      • Nextcloud (and its prerequisites)
• Mobile
  • OS : Lineage
  • APP
    • Nextcloud
    • DAVx⁵
• Uses
  • file backup from the PC
  • file sharing (PC & Mobile)
  • Automation of photo upload from mobile phone
  • Contact synchronization
  • Calendar Synchronisation
  • And many other file synchronisations (KeePass, Signal messenger daily backup, K9-Mail configuration, Scans of my printer, screenshots,…)

My choise : Owncloud or Nextcloud ?

Features

I can’t say that one is better than the other and my goal has never been to make a full comparison between them. I really think that it depends on what you want to do with it. I have a tiny preference for Nextcloud and its communication tools as Talk whereas Owncloud hasn’t any equivalent (when I’m writting this post or I didn’t find it). We could say that Owncloud stays focused on the cloud activity whereas Nexcloud cover a larger perimeter.

Mobile Applications

That’s where the difference is more significant for me for a simple detail : file synchronization. The Nexcloud application is much more automous when the Owncloud need you to relaunch a synchronization if it’s failed. With both, you are notified, but :

• with Nextcloud, you will often click on it for nothing because, in the meantime, it has tried again and did it successfuly
• with Owncloud, you could be scared by the quantity of unsynchronized files pending and being waiting for you for a simple click to retry

On other point, I find Nextcloud much more intuitive and logical. But it’s my point of view.

So my choise is Nexcloud. Because it fits me better. Do not hesitate to make your own point of view about these solutions. Try it with a free account and I advice you to have a look at the plugins. It’s important to anticipate your needs because your choice may depend on them.

Links :

• Owncloud
  • Try it : https://owncloud.online/try/#/signup/
  • plugins : https://marketplace.owncloud.com/
• Nextcloud
  • Try it :
    • 60 min testing : https://try.nextcloud.com/
    • free account : https://nextcloud.com/signup/
  • plugins : https://apps.nextcloud.com/

What Next

I intend to create a new server, with similar specifications but a little bit more powerful to be able to host much more VM and then more different projects as CozyCloud, MineCraft (just for having fun with friends), OnlyOffice (to use with Nextcloud), and also to alocate more cores to Nextcloud to make Thumbnails generation faster in severals views.

It will be the opportunity to explain each step to :

• Create a software RAID and Manage a Software RAID
• Install a VM manager and create a VM
• Install and manage Nextcloud
• Setup a Reverse Proxy with nginx
• Install LineageOS and connect it to your Nextcloud
• Setup a remote backup
• Delete your Google or Apple account which you don’t need anymore

I’ll do my best to make these things easy.