We were initially attracted to look at Backify since they were offering a 512GB FREE online backup account. Whenever something looks attractive, or too good to be true, we want to check it out.
Free is good, but since you are trusting your personal information and your data to an online backup service, we want to know a lot about them to see if they are worthy of our trust.
Note: As of today, the FREE account registration has been disabled, so don’t run there hoping to get a good deal.
While this could be because a company can only give away so much, it could be for any number of reasons and even may return in the future.
In fact, while we overall have liked Carbonite as a company for years, we were, and continue to be, very concerned about the recent alleged “privacy fail”.
Questions About Backify We Need Answered
First problem
Who is Backify? Their website does not even include an about page! Come on folks, that’s a “Google required page”.
One of their FAQ’s, in the summary list shows “What is the difference between Backify Backup and Livedrive Briefcase?”
Yet when you follow the link to the answer, you see this:
So it begs the question, are Backify and LiveDrive related?
To further add to this suspicion is the somewhat RARE FEATURE that both of these online backup services offer: FTP access. Now, they also offer SFTP, the secure version, but many have questioned the companies choice to even offer unsecured FTP.
Second Problem
How secure is your data? The Backify website talks about your data being secured in transit by SSL, we can only assume 128 bit SSL otherwise they would likely brag if it were 256 bit SSL, but the security of SSL is in question. The site also mentions that your data is encrypted on their servers. But we want our data encrypted BEFORE it leaves our computer.
Now, a lot of people don’t seem to care about that distinction and if you don’t that’s fine. But you should know.
Services like Mozy and IDrive that allow you to use your own encryption key mean that even if your data is turned over to a government authority they will not read your data easily. Again, probably not a problem for most of us.
Third Problem
Lack of contact information. Again, there is no “Contact Us” page on their website and that is another of the “Google required pages”.
While there is a toll free number at the top of the website, we called that number and received a message “voice mailbox for..{nothing}..leave a message” and that’s all it said. So we left a message.
Takeaway
We hope to do a full Backify review sometime soon, but I can tell you right now that if we cannot find out more about the company you won’t find them on our recommended list.
Hopefully, though, our questions will be answered favorably and we will be able to recommend them.
In the meantime, get started backing up online now with our #1 recommended online backup service – IDrive.
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