>>having your relevant data NOT in the cloud, but on USB3 stick or external HD is the key (just say NO to everybody wanting to store your data while being able to peek at them
I can testify that once in the cloud it can be difficult to revert to self sufficiency. Often you're lured in by a free/cheap taste and by the time the side effects appear you're well and truly hooked.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
