That is my startup idea. I don't want to take this thread even more off-topic (if that's even possible), but please feel free to contact me at the address in that first post to explain why you think it is a bad idea.
let me know if it's something you're interested in, or if you want to chat about it sometime.
drew (at getdropbox.com)
I think it took several days to move my data to the current system remotely which was not fun. I think its just an unavoidable problem. The severity was lessened by the service calibrating the upload to occur in the middle of the night, which really did help a lot. All of the incremental uploads also are scheduled at night, which is an obvious move.
Edit: That's assuming cperciva has physical access to his server, rather than working with e.g., EC2, or that he has more bandwith to spare.
But anyway, that's why I said if you can improve on their offering then go for it. Given the current options, they're the best that I know of; and I say that knowing that they have a lot to improve. So, if you build a better service, I'd consider switching.
This won't happen to you? Okay. I trust you.
_never confronted by a subpoena_
If you get a subpoena for a passphrase for a client, you will give it up. Yes you will. Now, if someone was holding terroristic bombcodes or whatever and REALLY didn't want people getting them, they ain't backing up anything online. The same people who need real security aren't going to be uploading their data anywhere .
"If you get a subpoena for a passphrase for a client, you will give it up."
Not if I don't have it. This is the point of strong security -- you don't NEED to trust me, because I am not technically capable (nor, unless I'm quite mistaken, is the NSA) of decrypting data backed up using tarsnap.
I'll be glad to discuss this remote secure backup project with you. It was once on top of my list for a DIS application, but I dropped it for various reasons that I would be glad to share with you.