ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Microsoft has today reminded OneDrive users that all their documents, photos, and critical work files are stored in a remote server farm over which they seemingly have absolutely no control.
In a quietly published update to its terms of service, the tech giant noted that it “may, from time to time, relocate, restructure, or retire user files as part of ongoing platform improvements,” a sentence legal experts have confirmed translates roughly to “we can lose your stuff and you can’t do anything about it.”
The change was not announced via press release or user notification, but instead buried deep in a 14-page changelog written in a tone best described as legally defensive and emotionally vacant.
A Microsoft spokesperson later clarified that the update does not indicate any specific problem, but did not deny that users across several regions had reported missing documents following the most recent software patch.
“We recommend users keep local backups of important files” the spokesperson said, speaking from a live chat window that crashed twice during the interview.
“OneDrive remains the most secure and efficient way to ensure constant, low-level anxiety about your digital assets. However, OneDrive may, from time to time, take those local backups and either delete or move them, or even write over them. We don’t know what it does that.”
Affected users have taken to support forums to report folders vanishing, files duplicating without consent, and entire archives being renamed “Backup (old) (2) FINAL THIS ONE PRINT V2.”
Microsoft engineers are said to be investigating the reports and reminding customers that all data is safely stored in the cloud, a word with no fixed meaning and no physical location.
More to come
