Syncthing

While cloud services have become a ubiquitous presence in every day of our lives, there are some risks involved that people often don't think of. High profile security breaches in the world of tech have made it clear that nothing shared in the cloud is completely safe, and even the most seemingly protected cloud servers can become a juicy target to enterprising digital criminals. Syncthing allows you to ditch the cloud and store and share all of your information safely and locally. Fundamentally, Syncthing serves a similar purpose to popular cloud hosting services like DropBox and OwnCloud. It ensures that you can access all the important information you need regardless of the platform, operating system, or device you're using at the time. Where it differs is in how it stores this information. Your data is only stored on your local servers. That means that there's no trail of your information on the web, and you don't have to rely on the safety of privately hosted remote servers to make sure your information is secure. Security is a top priority for Syncthing. They rely on TLS encryption to ensure that you have perfect forward security. You won't have to worry about your information being compromised by either illegal hackers or government requests to third party companies pressuring them to release your private files. Rather than using cloud services, Syncthing instead relies on peer to peer sharing technology. It's functionally similar to popular file sharing services, but it only uses the devices in your network. And since there are multiple nodes to connect you from one device to another, you don't have to worry about not being able to access your information if one happens to go down. The data itself is stored locally on your source machine, so full control of your local security is completely in your hands. Transparency isn't just a buzz word where Syncthing is concerned. The whole service is free to use and fully open source. That means you can hop right onto GitHub and dig through the code to see exactly how the platform works. It also means that more advanced developers can adjust and reprogram the software to their unique specifications. Syncthing works smoothly across all major operating systems as well. Where many cloud-based alternatives to software like this try to function as a sort of full service syncing platform that incorporates additional services like calendars and document editing, Syncthing focuses exclusively on file sharing. There's no pressure to buy into an entire platform ecosystem or notifications pressuring you to expose more of your private information than necessary. The design itself is simple to use once you learn the basics. Syncthing's responsive interface is accessible directly through your web browser, and connecting any of your devices to the central server that holds your data is a painless affair.