Forbes asks: Is Microsoft Spying On SkyDrive Users?

[YourNumbr1Fan]

From Forbes, article by Contributor Kelly Clay---
---------------------------------------------------

Attachment 66322

---------------------------------------------------

According to a report on Windows Phone community site, WMPoweruser, Microsoft has banned another SkyDrive account holder for violating the terms of service. The user (who goes by WingsOfFury on a Dutch forum), his account was banned after backing up 10-12GB from his hard drive. Among the contents were some videos that contained nudity or partial nudity. WingsOfFury seems to be claiming that these folders were private.


SkyDrive has strict Terms of Service, including, but not limited to, prohibiting the upload, post, transmit, or transfer, of any content (including text, images, sound, video, data, information or software) or otherwise use the service in a way that:

depicts nudity of any sort including full or partial human
nudity or nudity in non-human forms such as cartoons, fantasy art or
manga.
advocates, or expresses pornography, obscenity, vulgarity,
profanity, hatred, bigotry, racism, or gratuitous violence.
provides or creates links to external sites that violate this Code
of Conduct.
SkyDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage solution, which gives you access to your files on any device. Much like Dropbox or iCloud, you can share those files with others or use the service as a way to store your own files privately

For a public service the terms of service are fair. Most reasonable people would agree that people should be protect from harmful and hateful material on public services.

Who determines what constitutes vulgarity on a private storage solution? Most reasonable people would also agree that private services should protect against things like child pornography. But imagine if E.L. James decided to use a cloud backup solution for the next book in the Fifty Shades of Grey series. Would those text files, which could be vulgar, profane, or obscene to some, cause James’ SkyDrive account to get shut down?

And how did Microsoft know that there was such content on the user’s SkyDrive account? The only plausible explanation is that Microsoft is analyzing content uploaded to SkyDrive – even content uploaded to private folders – and it’s likely an automated process designed to pull the trigger when it “sees” certain content (such as nudity.)

The problem here is that not only does Microsoft appear to be reading or looking at your private data (which is scary enough) but such an automated process could limit your access to email for sharing or storing something as innocent as a photo of you breastfeeding your baby, or a picture of your child in the bathtub, which most reasonable people would consider normal inclusions in many family photo albums. For such false positives, this may trigger a warning (or service cancellation) from Microsoft, with even innocent photos involving child nudity potentially triggering FBI involvement.

For an increasing number of consumers across the globe, storing photos, documents and other forms of “data” to the cloud is becoming common. Dozens of services offer solutions for these consumers who want access to this information anywhere, anytime, including Microsoft, which offers SkyDrive.

While some cloud backup services, like Dropbox and Box.net maintain user accounts specific to the service, SkyDrive is tied to other products. The same Windows Live ID used for SkyDrive, which gives users automatic access to files across PCs, Macs, iPad, and Windows Phones devices, also provides access to Hotmail, Xbox LIVE, and several other Microsoft services. If Microsoft bans your account because you backed up the photos from your Windows Phone, for instance, you might lose access to your Xbox and email at the same time.

Doesn’t SkyDrive sound like something you want to use to share important, personal information? To me, it sounds more like Skynet. While this is a reminder to be cautious about what you store on any third party service, most consumers assume that their private data remains private to their account when they use online storage. If SkyDrive user WingsOfFury is to be belived, storing data on SkyDrive is anything but.



Related Reading:

https://www.myce.com/news/microsoft-s...revoked-62503/

https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft...ive-questioned

https://wmpoweruser.com/microsofts-sk...-a-paedophile/

*So what do you guys and ladies think about it all, VC? My opinion is that of course pedophiles should be caught and castrated....But, at the same time, I'm very uncomfortable with government and private corporations sifting through my data. In fact, I'm downright opposed to it. Very much so.

Like Kelly Clay pointed out in the Forbes article, who's to say that any one of us won't, at some point down the line, be accused of some "crime" over something as innocent as a few pictures of your kid in the tub? Or, what if you use the big bad 'N' word in a text, and get arrested for a hate-crime as a result? Both scenarios are VERY possible. I can think of many, many more ways that the average person could wind up being labeled "in violation" of Microsoft's terms-of-service in Skydrive...or Onedrive as it's now being called.

Attachment 66324

The powers-that-be are playing a game of Chess against us, people.....patiently positioning their pieces.....preparing for the kill, the Checkmate. It's not a conspiracy-theory!

I disabled the Skydrive service on my Windows 8.1 several months ago....only to get slipped another mickey today by downloading the latest round of updates from Microsoft Update. There were 18 for my computer, KB2923768 being the mickey that stuck a new Skydrive sync-icon in my system-tray. Microsoft's description of KB2923768: "improves the Skydrive experience" is so freakin' vague. Really Microsoft?

I think you can delete Sydrive.exe, along with 2 more files (.dll files with Skydrive in the name) from your System32 folder (after Owning them).....but it would probably be safer to simply un-install KB2923768. Which I plan to do in just a little while.

And don't be so smug Windows 7 users! You think you're safe? Think again. MS has worked with the NSA putting back-doors in the os as early as Windows 95. There are probably updates coming down all the time, in all Windows versions, planting eyes and ears in our machines. Skydrive is just so.....overt! It's a true Trojan, in the classical sense.

Attachment 66323

[IceBabee]

I'm opposed to this also! The government spies on us through more things than we care to know about! Why can't we turn the tables on them? It sucks that we cannot truly live the american dream anymore.They take our rights away,the spy on us through many things, and wonder why the world is the way it is today! I just heard on the radio today that some new cars will have cameras installed in them so that they can even watch what we do when we are driving.......bullshit!!!!!!!! I'm afraid to ask whats next!