Microsoft wants your files in its cloud
Software King of the World, Microsoft, has turned file storage into a mugging, and it starts the moment Windows decides you are using OneDrive now.
OneDrive is pitched as cloud storage, but it is really an aggressive funnel that shoves your documents onto Microsoft’s servers with a grin and a default setting.
The nastiest bit is not just the upload, but the way Windows nudges users to delete the originals from their own machines.
Writer Jason Pargin said, “At some point, your computer will update to start using OneDrive, and at no point will you be given any kind of plain-language warning or opt-out; it will just do it. At some point, you will notice that it is quietly uploading everything on your computer to Microsoft’s servers. Some of you will only notice this because you’re on a slow or metered internet connection … or because OneDrive is running out of space. … So you will look up how to turn off OneDrive Backup. Then you’ll find out that everything on your computer is gone. Everything was deleted by Microsoft. And on your desktop, your clean desktop, will be one cheeky little icon that says “Where are my files?”
It is hard to tell the difference between a ransomware attack and a normal user just wanting their bandwidth back.
Then comes the second trap: you can pull files down again, but deleting Microsoft’s copies can take your local copies with them again.
Pargin said: “The only way to delete the files of their machine without deleting them off your machine is to go find a YouTube tutorial walking through the detailed steps,” Pargin said. “To make OneDrive not do this requires looking it up. There is no intuitive way to do it. They intentionally bury the steps in menus, and none of those options says in plain English what they do.”
He is not the only one who has noticed this. When a lifetime of files, which had been put on a hard drive for PC transfer, were installed onto Windows, we expected OneDrive to take them. What we did not expect was for the local files to appear empty. It took a while to find them, on Microsoft’s servers, but one was left with the weird feeling that sort of cloud behaviour did not help anyone. All it means is that Microsoft has the files for scanning and general data piracy, but the user has to log in to their OneDrive cloud server to access them. Fortunately, we still had the files on the hard drive when we needed them.
Let’s be clear: we don’t believe Vole is doing this to steal data. We think it is just straight-up incompetence: Vole’s One Drive isn’t working properly, and no one has thought, “We need to do something about this.”
Microsoft brags that 30 per cent of its code is generated by LLMs, while its CEO keeps insisting we stop calling generative AI “slop”, but if OneDrive is an example of what it churns out as Cloud software, that is one of the best terms we can think of.
If you want control of your files, or even the basic comfort of knowing where they are, switching operating systems starts to look like self-defence.
Even the old trick of keeping a Windows laptop offline is getting harder, with login nags and forced sign-ins pushing you into the account-and-cloud pipeline.
