this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2025
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I'm not suggesting anyone gets a recurring subscription at all. You can buy the most dogshit pc or even something like an off brand raspberry pi and a $10 microsd card with hundreds of gigabytes of storage and have a permanent data backup solution. You can even skip the device if you're really struggling. Microsd cards are dirt cheap.
Combine that with grabbing several free tiers of data storage like Google, Proton, mega, filen, etc, you can rack up hundreds of gigabytes of storage, each with its own account so if one goes down or you lose access you can have the same data on the others. This can be for maximum priority data but even for low priority you can fit a lot of data on 15gb if it's not all high quality photos and videos.
And if I can reach a bit, even a 2nd phone is viable. Many phones are under $100 and they, at the bare minimum, "work" so one such phone can be kept as a backup.
There are many, many ways to have a very cheap backup plan. It's more about logistics than storage, and only requires a little bit of thinking and planning.
I was once in a place where I couldn't afford an extra $2 a month, like you mentioned. But I ALWAYS had a backup plan, and sometimes it was completely free.
Okay I think you're intentionally missing the point. If someone isn't literate enough to make a Google drive account they are going to have a hard time with more things than a backup plan. They might not even be able to use a smartphone at all. We can nitpick the reasons why someone can't make a backup plan all day. What if they have a learning disability? What if they're in prison? What if they have no arms?
It doesn't matter. My point is if you can use a smartphone at a below-average level, without assistance, you can easily and affordably (free) have a data backup plan. If you can't use a smartphone at a below average level without assistance, you have much bigger problems than a backup plan and a backup plan shouldn't be one of your worries.
I brought up the google drive plan because I know many people can't afford to buy a 2nd device. Not being literate enough to know you need a backup plan is beside the point.
And I'm not talking about pictures here. Before smartphones (or digital cameras I guess) nobody had backups of their pictures. You got the one copy and if it was destroyed that's it. Unless you used film and bought/made 2 copies but that's beside the point. That's a very low priority backup item. I'm talking about documentation, paperwork, important information in text form, passwords, etc. Things that literally everyone who has feasible access to a smartphone likely has or needs. All of that can be stored on a 15gb free plan. Anyone who is literate enough to use a random smartphone can do that. Pdfs and text files are tiny. Even pictures of documents can be tiny.
Not knowing you can or should do that is another problem entirely. I was once one of those people who was so poor the only screen I owned was a phone (and it wasn't even a smart phone). If you do not understand that you need to keep a 2nd copy of important information, whoever gave you that documentation or the government that created it is at fault. If someone ever says "do not lose this", it should be clear you might want to make a copy of some sort, physical or digital.
I'm not sure we're on the same page here.
If someone can:
Like I already said, if they don't know they NEED to do that, that's another problem entirely, and not really their fault. But I haven't met many people who don't realize those documents are important and need protecting. And I'm not talking strictly about affluent, educated, privileged people.