If I have all my photos on Flickr or the cloud, they can't be lost in a fire, right?

Yes, your photos are safe @YARNLADY. They are ‘in the cloud’. You’ll lose the copies on your computer, but you have stored copies off your computer on the Flickr servers (or elsewhere).

Yes. That is probably the most popular selling point of the cloud. And the fact that you don’t have to use up all your own internal and expensive external memory storage. But the thing is, you can only access your data while online. And there have been some security issues. Google “Cloud Security Issues”.

If you’re not posting anything sensitive, such as government ID docs, docs with passwords, professional licenses, Credit Card numbers, Passport ID pages, Drivers Licenses, Social Security card images, mortgage docs, Birth Certificates, Nuclear Codes, you and hubby in flagrant delicto, etc., and you aren’t an international spy nor intend to be under investigation by the FBI, you should feel quite safe.

@Espiritus_Corvus Hubby keeps all that stuff on his computer, so I assume he has a back up source for it. I know we have a memory stick in our safe deposit box at the bank that he puts in there a few times a year.

^^Yeah, that’s the way I do it as well. I keep a flash drive of important docs in the safety deposit box, and the fun stuff on imgur.

They won’t be lost but there’s every chance they might be stolen. So avoid keeping personal / critical information over there which can compromise your identity.

Nearly every online service I used to back-up data has been closed down. Flickr is owned by Yahoo now and Yahoo loves to kill things. The good news is Yahoo is pretty good about giving you a long time to get your data off.

And for those wondering about Backblaze or Crashplan They mirror your stuff. So if you delete it from your local computer they will delete it from their servers after a specific amount of time. (usually 30 days)

@johnpowell I have had the same issue. That’s why I am using Flickr, Photo Bucket and the cloud.