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During the past couple of years, many people, including genealogists, have been transitioning their blogs to social media such as Facebook etc. They have also used social media websites for "genealogy" storing photos and documents online. The recent announcement made by Google that it will be "sunsetting consumer Google+" highlights the dependence all of the users of social networking websites have on the continuation of what is essentially a business to make money. None of the online social networking websites is "permanent." They are all totally dependent on the whims and goals of those who own and run them.
At the very least, if you are using a social networking website to "store" your photos or other content, you should backup all of your data to another storage media constantly and regularly. When I say "another storage media," I do not mean another social networking website. I mean your computer's storage. Any data that you wish to preserve should also be backed up to hard drives, flash drives, and online data storage.
That problem is not limited to social media.
ReplyDeleteAll internet storage lasts only as long as it suits the company or individual providing the storage, very often this means as long as they are making money out of it, either in fees or advertising revenue etc.
The only safe storage is on a media controlled by the owner of the photo or file and backed up in a suitable manner.
That works until you die. Ultimately, preservation is a complex issue.
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