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Wuala Encrypted Cloud-Storage Service Shuts Down

Posted by samzenpus on from the end-of-the-line dept.

New submitter craigtp writes: Wuala, one of the more trusted cloud-storage services that employed encryption for your files, is shutting down. Users of the service will have until 15th November 2015 to move all of their files off the service before all of their data is deleted. From the announcement: "Customers who have an active prepaid annual subscription will be eligible to receive a refund for any unused subscription fees. Your refund will be calculated based on a termination date effective from today’s date, even though the full service will remain active until 30 September 2015 and your data will be available until 15 November 2015. Refunds will be automatically processed and issued to eligible customers in coming weeks. Some exceptions apply. Please visit www.wuala.com for more information."

14 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. WtF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    NSA strikes again...

    1. Re:WtF? by HiThere · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You can't be certain that's true. It could look the same way whether it was NSA action or not. That's what an NSL is intended to ensure.

      So it's quite reasonable to assume that this is NSA action, but don't be close minded about it. There could be other reasons.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    2. Re:WtF? by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 3, Informative

      So, no canary?
      SpiderOak updates their canary every six months:
      https://spideroak.com/canary

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    3. Re:WtF? by lucm · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Did you know that Box's CEO pays himself a very modest salary, lives in a tiny apartment near the office, drives an old car, and got a very small stake in the IPO (something like 4%)?

      The guy has been working like a madman for over 10 years. I'm not a big fan of him, I find him obnoxious, but he is definitely not a scammer.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    4. Re:WtF? by greenfruitsalad · · Score: 4, Insightful

      afaik, they're swiss. not the parent company (lacie) or the parent's parent company (seagate) but wuala itself was incorporated in switzerland to give it some protection from NSA's claws. I think they simply priced themselves out of the market. I used to recommend them (their free tier was great) when ubuntuONE shut down but when they went for paid only accounts, the price was just too high compared to competition.

  2. Re:once again: the CLOUD is NOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who said it was? In this case you paid for space, and you got it. They are closing down and you get your files back AND a refund. I see no issue here. no different than if you had your crap in a storage unit and they decided to close down mid contract.

    This is how a business runs, and when it closes, how it properly closes.

  3. Re:once again: the CLOUD is NOT by SpankiMonki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Your rational, sober, succinct and to the point comments have no place here. Or pretty much anywhere else on the internet. Or television. Or talk radio. Definitely not talk radio.

  4. My preferred alternative to Wuala by kheldan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's called 'the hard drive in the computer on my desk'.

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    1. Re:My preferred alternative to Wuala by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Informative

      I hope you have an offsite backup as well. Because what could possibly happen to that "hard drive in the computer on my desk", right? We all know "the cloud" is ridiculously overhyped, but automatic offsite backup is really one of it's killer applications.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  5. At least they're giving notice by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm sorry they're shutting down. At least they're giving their users some notice, which is good.

    I suspect there's a niche market in encrypted storage online that would be marketed as (supposedly) "NSA proof", if such a thing is even possible. I suspect that the current reach of the NSA is for all intents and purposes unlimited in the US. I doubt there's much they couldn't get into if they wanted to.

    I mean, we know that Wall Street has been thoroughly and utterly penetrated and is basically the plaything of corporations and financial houses.Add in the activity by blackhats ripping off whatever they can from the major brokerage houses and Wall Street is a joke in terms of any fairness.

    Given that, is it so far-fetched to surmise that the NSA has managed to get it's taps into virtually every communication medium we use? (Especially after the recent revelations about AT&T being in cahoots with the NSA.) At this point I'd be more surprised if they didn't have everything tapped.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  6. NSA is plausible. by blang · · Score: 3, Interesting

    But also plausible might be that the encryption has been cracked or breached lets say by white or black hats, and the site decides to let the customers get their data out and shut down before the breach is known across the the full hat population.

    --
    -- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
  7. Alternative Encrypted Cloud Storage Providers by jest3r · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've been using Sync.com for the past year. They've been sort of in beta but releasing features. 5GB free.

    SpiderOak is decent but they recently dropped their free plan, so not sure what's going on there.

    MEGA was great but Kim.com said last week in Wired that the company is run by criminals

    Tresorit is good but expensive. Maybe that's why they've been around so long.
    Bitcasa pulled a Wuala last year and closed down their consumer cloud storage after a lawsuit. That's pretty much it. There's OwnCloud which is do it yourself. And BitTorrent Sync which is kind of do it yourself but they've been adjusting pricing so it's bait and switch as well.

  8. Maybe not the NSA -- it might just be business by mattb47 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wuala is owned by Lacie. Lacie was purchase by Seagate in 2014. Seagate has it's own online backup products. Maybe Seagate wants to eliminate a redudant or money-losing service? It happens...

    Yes, the NSA is the bogeyman, and is a threat to secure encryption everywhere. But the invisible hand of capitalism can slap someone as well.

  9. Re:Oh well by lucm · · Score: 4, Funny

    You can't even spend $9 to back your joke by buying the domain and putting up a quick website? Lame.

    That's the problem with kids nowadays. No follow-through.

    --
    lucm, indeed.