Based on the current state of affairs around the world, I’ve received emails from a growing number of software companies recommending I safeguard my online account by implementing multi-factor/two-factor authentication. From what I’m inferring, these companies are contending with a growing number of adversarial attacks to their servers. The uber-nerds call these large-scale attacks Advanced Persistent Threats. These precautionary emails made me put on that suspicious sweater, the paranoid parka, the doomsday denim dungaree…and ask myself the question:
What if I can’t get access to my online information for a temporary timeframe?
Amazon Web Services was inaccessible to a large amount of people on December 7, 2021. (I remember it well.) Just recently Spotify and Discord were down for its users. Do Google and Apple think they are impervious to very talented, adversaries located around the world from knocking their online services….offline?
I’ve been working on a checklist of downloading important data to my local computer and saving it onto a portable USB device. (I’m also encrypting my data within a Veracrypt container, but that’s because I’m a tinfoil-hat-nerdboy.)
Should you be concerned about losing access to your important data, try these guides:
The Google/Gmail/Android Archive
Download your Android phone contact list onto and Excel .CSV file.
Download your Chrome web browser bookmarks.
Download your saved passwords from your Chrome web browser (if you aren’t using a password manager).
Download all your Gmail.
Download your Google Keep Notes.
The Apple/macOS/iOS Archive
Download your iPhone contact list onto .vcf file.*
Download your Safari bookmarks.
Download your saved passwords from your Safari browser (if you aren’t using a password manager).
Download your Apple Mail mailbox(es).
Download your Apple Notes to a PDF file individually or to plaintext files all at once.
This checklist isn’t just for the low statistical probability that a big tech company gets knocked offline. Downloading your data, and storing your data in a secure location, will help in case your phone is lost or stolen, your account is hacked, or if you want to move to another service.
If, after reading these guides, you are feeling overwhelmed by the process to download your data, don’t be discouraged or get into a hopeless funk. You are not expected to export all this data wham-bam-Sam-I-Am. In fact, there are talented professionals who does this stuff for a living, and they’re pretty thorough about it. After all, they’ve gone first…
* A .vcf file can be imported into Microsoft Excel, although the result is not very clean-looking. The object of the .VCF export is to get your contacts’ phone numbers visible to you, should someting happen to your phone device or phone service, and have to call them manually from another phone. Speaking of another phone, a .VCF file makes importing contacts to a new device fairly straightforward, whether you have a new iPhone or Android.