‘Europe demands different’ says pCloud CEO
PCloud is your personal cloud space where you can store all your files and folders. Based in Switzerland, it has a user-friendly interface that clearly shows where everything is located and what it does. The software is available for almost all devices and platforms – iOS and Android devices, MacOSX, Windows OS, and all Linux distributions. All your devices are instantly synchronized and you have direct file access to any update you make. Generally speaking, pCloud is the European analogue of well-known US iCloud or Google Drive.
PCloud has seen a 500% growth in just four years. Today it is over 10.5 million users strong and growing rapidly. It has become famous for their security standard, which has taken all the necessary steps to meet full GDPR compliance.
What is GDPR? Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, brought by the European Parliament, is a set of measures to enhance EU user privacy rights (from May 25, 2018). It imposes strict regulations on how organizations operating in the EU collect, store and manage personal information.
What is more, pCloud offers not only reasonable prices but also lifetime plan/ lifetime subscription.
It all sounds great, does not it? But there are nuances.
Firstly, to guarantee your files’ safety, pCloud uses TLS/SSL encryption, applied when information is being transferred from your device to the pCloud servers. Optionally, you can subscribe for pCloud Crypto and have your most important files encrypted and password protected. Without additional encryption, pCloud is able to get access to your data at any time, as the keys for file decryption are stored on their servers.
Secondly, the company reserves the right to cooperate with law enforcement agencies by disclosing your personal information, or to review your files at its sole discretion to make sure that nothing violates their rules. Such conditions immediately make it clear that behind loud slogans about guarantees of absolute confidentiality of stored files will be observed only if additional paid services are used. Neither pCloud as a service provider, nor any authority or service will ever have access to your encrypted files. They do not store your Crypto Pass on servers, which means that you are the one in charge.
Personal data will be stored in pCloud for the period set by EU and US laws (depending on the servers where your files are stored). Personal data may be stored for longer if the company deems it necessary or if it does not violate the law. PCloud also collects information about you while you are using the service, including your IP address, browser type, information about your operating system, your time, phone number, location data, session duration, viewed sections, folders, pages, and etc.
Nothing is free; everything has a price. In this particular case you pay company with money or, otherwise, with your data.
Sources:
https://techcrunch.com/sponsor/pcloud/europe-demands-different-from-us-tech-giants-says-pcloud-ceo/