A lot of people ask me what happens to their files once they are uploaded to BitBuffet, so allow me to illuminate this subject. The short answer is: we host several copies securely. The long answer, is well, longer and a little more complicated, naturally!
First, we take your files and calculate the calculate a hash for a unique naming convention. That way we never have to worry about your file getting overwritten or deleted on accident. Next, we place it in a folder structure based on the date. Now the important thing to know about this folder is it's explicitly blocked from normal surfers (and those like Google). So even if you knew the exact path AND the hash, you couldn't access the file if you wanted to!
Usually, if your file is small (think under 5 megs), we keep it on our server. While those files do get backed up with the rest of the site bi-weekly to Amazon's S3 service, we don't host the files for download from S3. Instead, we use a powerful Apache module called "x-sendfile" to permit only one time authorized downloads issued by an internal mechanism. Basically, no one downloads these files unless we let them.
On the other hand, if your file is large (think over 5 megs), we move them to Amazon's S3 service for faster access (and more redundant storage). While S3 is usually thought of as a plain-Jane CDN, it actually has some really powerful access settings. Basically, we block all access and then generate one-time, expiring URLs to access the file. These URL's are only good for about 60 seconds, but we may generate another URL depending on your download settings.
Usually, we keep the files and data around for a couple weeks, just in case you decide to come back and get your old information and files. After that, we usually clean house by deleting the information. We will never sell your info or use your files elsewhere (we don't own them, you do!).
Feel free to contact us with any further questions via our contact page or our toll-free telephone line!