Use of cloud storage - security

[DBWeden 0]

A number of people in our office use note taking software (EverNote, OneNote, Google Docs). As you may know, these products allow users to save notes to cloud accounts set up by the user. This creates a security issue for us – if someone leaves we need to make sure that notes taken during their employment at the company stay in our possession. I would like people to store work related notes on a Partners controlled platform. Hence the following questions:

1. Can we set up EverNote to save to a cloud storage service we control? e.g. Dropbox

2. If so, is this feature only available to the pay-version of the app?

3. (optional) What are the top 5 features of EverNote that make it preferable to competitors (e.g., OnNote)?

[DTLow 5,736]

On 2016-12-12 at 6:16 AM, DBWeden said:

1. Can we set up EverNote to save to a cloud storage service we control? e.g. Dropbox

2. If so, is this feature only available to the pay-version of the app?

3. (optional) What are the top 5 features of EverNote that make it preferable to competitors (e.g., OnNote)?

Have you looked into the Business level for accounts - you can define notebooks at the business level
Also, there's nothing stopping you from backing up your data to a cloud storage service - I use Apple iCloud

For me, the top features are

1. Non-proprietary format; html is ubiquitous
2. Organization/Retrieval of my data; Tags and Search
3. Sharing my data via public url
4. Saved searches giving different views of my data
5. Applescript allowing customization on my Mac

[gazumped 11,661]

Hi.  Cloud storage is everywhere these days - posts on social media,  Dropbox,  Box et al.,  the various hosting services (like AWS) that might be servicing someone else's website...  the only way to avoid the issue is to block access to anything other than your own network.  I used to work for a government agency that was more than slightly paranoid about its security,  yet the staff routinely used Dropbox to share work files. 

Their answer was to write in some draconian disciplinary measures for anyone sharing or storing confidential information outside the network.. and to monitor and fire a few people who didn't seem to get the message.  Blocking access was too impractical - a 'social firewall' was deemed the best option available.

[jefito 5,589]

23 hours ago, DBWeden said:

1. Can we set up EverNote to save to a cloud storage service we control? e.g. Dropbox

2. If so, is this feature only available to the pay-version of the app?

No. You sync notes to the Evernote cloud, or not at all. That being said, you can keep attachments in Google''s GDrive: https://evernote.com/google-drive/. I've never used that, nor do I know your use case, so I can't tell you how that works in practice.

23 hours ago, DBWeden said:

3. (optional) What are the top 5 features of EverNote that make it preferable to competitors (e.g., OnNote)?

I could tell you why I prefer Evernote to its competitors, but my use case is likely different than yours. Tell us what you're trying to do, and that that might help focus our minds.

 

[U.S. 2]

Hello friends at Evernote. A related security question. If a user deletes an attachment / a note with an attachment - *does Evernote delete all copies of the attachment from storage*, or does Evernote still have a residual copy of the attachment stored?

[zotje 12]

On 12/12/2016 at 9:16 AM, DBWeden said:

A number of people in our office use note taking software (EverNote, OneNote, Google Docs). As you may know, these products allow users to save notes to cloud accounts set up by the user. This creates a security issue for us – if someone leaves we need to make sure that notes taken during their employment at the company stay in our possession. I would like people to store work related notes on a Partners controlled platform. Hence the following questions:

 

 

1. Can we set up EverNote to save to a cloud storage service we control? e.g. Dropbox

2. If so, is this feature only available to the pay-version of the app?

3. (optional) What are the top 5 features of EverNote that make it preferable to competitors (e.g., OnNote)?

How do you control the notes with dropbox?  As far as I know, I can go into my dropbox directory on my pc and copy the entire directory and paste it somewhere else on the hard drive or a thumb drive and have everything from the dropbox account in my possession without the company knowing? Besides my dropbox is on 3 laptops, a desktop and they get backed up at least weekly.   I don't think any of these cloud accounts will keep your notes safe from being copied and shared if they are personal cloud accounts.  Seems to me it might be easier to make everyone sign a non disclosure agreement and give the person leaving a few months salary to ensure their good faith.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, U.S. said:

Hello friends at Evernote. A related security question. If a user deletes an attachment / a note with an attachment - *does Evernote delete all copies of the attachment from storage*, or does Evernote still have a residual copy of the attachment stored?

Evernote has various levels of backups; it would take time before deleted notes are dropped completely

This includes note attachments 

[U.S. 2]

2 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Evernote has various levels of backups; it would take time before deleted notes are dropped completely

This includes note attachments 

Thanks. So to confirm: they are deleted completely in a reasonable time frame (from a security perspective).  Could you provide guidance - weeks, months? Less than a year? Or is possible even more than a year?

[DTLow 5,736]

45 minutes ago, U.S. said:

Thanks. So to confirm: they are deleted completely in a reasonable time frame (from a security perspective).  Could you provide guidance - weeks, months? Less than a year? Or is possible even more than a year?

According to this documentation, it could take up to a year

https://evernote.com/legal/privacy.php

The Evernote service’s back-up and archiving systems may retain residual copies of your deleted Content for up to one year due to the nature of those systems’ operations.