Shadow Snapshots and Data Retention Policies
Cloud platforms keep distributed backups on hundreds of servers worldwide to protect against hardware failures. When a user clicks permanent delete, the entry is merely hidden from the web interface, while the physical clusters on company servers may store file fragments for months before scheduled archive rotation.
Ways to Limit Data Leaks from the Cloud
- disable automatic gallery synchronization and chat backups in your smartphone settings
- encrypt important documents and archives with a strong password on your computer before manually uploading them to the disk
- use Advanced Data Protection (end-to-end encryption) in your account settings, which revokes company access to encryption keys
- regularly check and forcibly delete outdated backups of old devices in your cloud settings