The Cloud Solution I Really Want

The magic of the cloud promises to have my files instantly available to me no matter where I am and no matter what device I'm using. I can edit on my iPhone and my laptop and my home computer and my work computer all instantly have the updates for me when I get there, thanks to iCloud. I can place my stories and my base GIT repo in Dropbox and changes are shared between my desktop and laptop.

But all this talk of privacy keeps me scared. I've heard the FBI could seize files in Dropbox. Also, Dropbox security has been a bit lax in the past. But you know what I really don't want to see? I don't want Google (supposing I'm using Google's cloud solution) indexing all my unpublished content. I don't want Google to find the name of some character in some unfinished fantasy story of mine and discover that it happens to match the screen name of some user somewhere, then offer me advertisements for his hideous t-shirts. Firstly I'd be shocked to see a fictional name of my own invention on the public internet. Then I'd realize it was Google giving it to me, that they must have been poking through my private files, and I'd be mad.

So while I like Dropbox and at least the idea of iCloud (haven't used it much yet), what I really want is a solution I can place on my own server that uses SSL and strong encryption keys and that works on an open standard. It being an open standard, I could use standard apps and device settings to point at my cloud server and account, then things would work just like Dropbox or iCloud but all the data would be under my control.

Of course, "my" server is actually a VPS in someone else's building. So maybe the FBI could still come and sieze that. But I'm not worried about the FBI.

How would the masses use this? Well, anyone with a nerdy family member would probably just use his/her VPS-based cloud storage server. Everyone else would use Google, Dropbox, Apple, Mozy, etc. but they'd be running the same software, so it's 100% compatible and also completely encrypted. Of course Google would never go for that, because it would destroy their cash flow model. But I'm sure there would be enough businesses offering cloud storage server accounts.

Is this a job for open source? Or at least a Y Combinator start up.