The Principality of Sealand is a rusted oil-drilling platform, 13 miles off the coast of the United Kingdom. It declared itself an independent state in 1967, becoming a micronation. It’s not too comfortable to live on and it doesn’t have much of a government, but it still might be more trustworthy with your data than the United States.
Sealand is attempting to turn itself into a for-profit data haven business with the relaunch of HavenCo, an ill-fated venture that failed once before in the early 2000s. Just pay HavenCo upkeep, and they promise to keep your data private, using strategies like virtual private networks, routing services, and a decentralized storage system, according to an extensive Mother Jones story.
What’s really cool though is HavenCo’s new strategy for cold data storage — storage that’s not online, simply stashed on physical hard drives. Want to make sure no one can get at your data? The company will back up your stuff with computers marooned on their wholly inaccessible oil platform. Encryption keys for HavenCo’s cloud storage will also be stuck on the structure.
Hackers will only be able to get at it if they have really, really good helicopters, and possibly a death wish. (Photo: Wikipedia)
