Younited by F-Secure, Finland’s Red-Hot Alternative to US-Based Cloud Services, Now Live

~Younited becomes the new industry benchmark by turning personal cloud services into an engaging user experience - with no Big Brother access~

Kuala Lumpur, 13 November 2013 – Younited by F-Secure, the bold new personal content cloud service that offers a fun, engaging experience with rock-solid privacy and security, is now live and ready to change the way users manage their content.

Personal cloud services commonly refer to the capability to store and back up user files to an online service, share them with friends, family and business associates, and synchronize them between desktop computers, tablets, smartphones and laptops, giving users access to their files independent of time, device or location. The drivers for the huge demand - well over 500 million people are signed up on personal cloud services across the world - are explosive growth in mobility, multi-screening and volume of user generated content.

Younited enters a market already dominated by a number of well-known American services. But younited stands out from the rest by tackling crucial needs that are not currently being properly served: Providing an engaging and fun user experience in a service that you can trust to safeguard your life's most precious pictures, documents, videos, books and music.

“We consider existing personal cloud services to be mostly boring, 90's look-and-feel file utilities that are used only occasionally. We want to change that,” says Timo Laaksonen, Vice President at F-Secure Corporation.

“What you see in younited today is already compelling but it’s only the beginning. A number of new service capabilities are in the works that will add further excitement to the user experience. For instance, we will soon launch a completely new, dead-easy and fun way to share pictures and videos from events with friends and family."

Personal cloud services are built on trust
Looking for more privacy and security in the cloud, tens of thousands of consumers and small businesses have already signed up for younited – well before the official launch. This demonstrates a clear market demand for an alternative to US-based cloud services. Personal cloud services are built on trust. However, that trust has eroded in the past year as a result of a multitude of alarming signals, such as reports of malware being spread using personal cloud services and questionable methods used by national intelligence agencies to eavesdrop and access the online data of law-abiding citizens.

Younited is the cloud service that can be trusted. It is hosted in Finland, home to strict privacy laws and strongly held cultural values of privacy, and has been conceived and built for privacy from the ground up. What’s more, it is engineered by security professionals who have built security into the architecture as well as into their ways of working on younited.

Younited’s promise is that users will remain in control of their data, with security professionals defending their content every day against loss of data, malware, unauthorized access, and other threats.

“It's high time for a fresh European alternative to enter the market, taking the existing Internet behemoths head on,” says Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure. “What the world needs now is a cloud storage service that is not subject to uncontrolled access by intelligence agencies.”

Engaging and fun – while flying above the clouds
As important as trust is to personal cloud services, younited brings much more. It provides a fresh, highly visual user experience for accessing content while online or offline from any device, and for sharing and organizing. Younited comes with a native user application for Windows desktops, Apple Macs, Android devices, Apple iPhones and iPads, Windows Phone 8, in addition to a generic Web User Interface.

Younited collects the pictures, videos, documents and other content users have on their many devices into one safe place. However, that's not all: In addition to younited’s own secure and private storage space, users can also connect their Facebook, Dropbox and Picasa accounts to younited. This allows users to see all their content in one single service where they can find, organize and share it with friends, family and business associates. Younited will continue to add more external clouds to the service, thus providing users with practically unlimited cloud storage space for their files.

All you need, at an affordable price
Younited is open to users through a queue for the first months of live operation. Users have gotten access to the service in controlled groups since October 24th. Younited is being launched in three alternative packages: Free, Medium and Premium.

The free version will offer all younited’s functionality along with 10GB of safe cloud storage – but only for a limited time (starting next year, the free version will offer 5GB). Medium expands safe cloud storage to 200GB and retails at €74,99 a year. Premium provides users with 500GB of safe cloud storage, retailing at €120 a year.

For more information about younited’s features and functionalities, and to sign up please visit www.younited.com.