I just purchased a few things (domain name registration, email, file storage/access) from Go Daddy.com. The online file storage/access appealed to me as internet access to some of my files would come in pretty handy. It was also pretty cheap. I realize any answers to the following questions will be somewhat subjective, but here it is anyway:
How secure/safe are these online services. Any safeguards in place to prevent access to the files by Go Daddy employees? Any problems with working with a file using different versions of Excel, Word, etc from different computers?
Web hosting services are designed for publishing stuff. They’re not designed for keeping it hidden. If you want to keep files on a shared web server secret, you’ll have to work at it.
Are you in need of accessing the data from more than one location? If so, then consider online storage as a potential place. However, if all of your access is from the same computer, online storage is a bad consideration.
Online storage security is about as good as the host is willing to inform you and support. Bear in mind, no matter what literature may be available, your data is controlled by someone else, under their conditions and directions. Not you.
The best storage is one you manage and you control. All my personal data I keep on encrypted hard drives as standalone drives or within NAS boxes. Win, place or show, I have total security and total control.
Three people can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
Services such as Dropbox and SugarSync are popular, and you get the best of both worlds - files are stored locally on your device(s), but also held on the service provider’s servers. If they go tits-up, you still have all your data.
As for privacy, I guess you do have to take them at their word but Dropbox, for example, states “[Our] employees aren’t able to access user files, and when troubleshooting an account they only have access to file metadata (filenames, file sizes, etc., not the file contents)”.