Why have you excluded Dropbox?
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for what it’s worth (as I’m aware you didn’t actually ask): I found CloudMe to be reliable; whilst I experienced temporary hiccups, they have always been self-resolving within a small number of hours. I augment that with Bonjour for databases which I don’t sync online and when I want to be extra-sure I’m up-to-date (so before hitting the road for a few days etc.)
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Whilst I don’t know @mdbraber’s reasoning (and mine is unlikely to apply in this case, as iCloud probably has the same problem), for many Europeans, “Storage servers are located in data centers across the United States.” (source) is reason enough. Transferring some types of data to the US is not without legal pitfalls, and for some professions is simply incompatible with professional obligations.
Perhaps verging of OT, but I think relevant when we consider picking options for DEVONthink syncing.
How does one find an internet network storage service provider that does not have, and can guarantee that assertion, data stored, or traversing via wires/cables/routers, “undesirable” countries?
I suspect in today’s global internet world it’s impossible to prevent storage/traversal via “undesirable” countries without Herculean (and expensive?) efforts building bespoke solutions. I recall how corporate telecom systems were in the last century (1970’s and ‘80’) were point-to-point and all that so it can be done, I guess.
I know EU law says that … but not the first time the law is perhaps not aligned with what’s possible.
If there is so much legal risk on this … maybe just not sync with any third-party internet-facing service?
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AFAIK Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom offer Cloud services that they guarantee are using only German locations and have no connection to other Azure centers.
And then there are the purely European players, too.
Go for it! But just don’t as a user connect these servers across the internet from a non-EU country. Yea, maybe EU thinks VPN ok, but …
Don’t know if works for DEVONthink, but maybe they have WebDav services. I’ll leave that discovery to others. 
There’s definitely truth to some of what @Blanc is saying, I’m trying to limit my reliance on US services. But than obviously using Fastmail (an Australian company, also having to deal with the Five Eyes-principle) doesn’t mean it’s a technically much better solution. The other point is also that I’m trying to limit my reliance on too many different services. At least it’s a good thing I can story encrypted databases, make it less problematic if my data resides at places where I might be less happy with.
For now I’ll see how Fastmail performs and will look into self-hosted alternatives. Thanks for thinking along.
From Fastmail’s web site:
Our main servers are located at 365 Data Centers in Bridgewater, New Jersey, USA.
They also say:
We won’t release any data without the required legal authorisation from an Australian court. As an Australian company, we do not respond to US court orders.
Lawyers can decide if that conforms to EU law.
Limit doesn’t always mean I’m able to exclude them completely. I’m mostly trying not add other services when I don’t need them. So when Fastmail providers something Dropbox also offers I try to use Fastmail first.
If you are referring to using an encryption key with your sync location, then yes indeed this is a good way to work with a service you may not entirely trust but the rates and storage are favorable.
However, the greatest privacy is local syncs on your own network.
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I always presumed using an encrypted database (besides an encrypted sync store) provides an additional layer of security - is that right, or is that moot with remote sync locations?
Having an encrypted database offers no extra protection in the case of syncing. You are working with a decrypted dataset once the database is open. When it syncs, it is syncing just like an unencrypted database. This also allows the import of an encrypted database as unencrypted on another Mac and also in DEVONthink To Go.
Sync encryption is a different matter altogether.
- Database encryption is for local data security.
- Sync encryption is for data security in transmission and any intermediary sync locations.
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Thanks for making that clear!
You’re welcome. 