the documents folder on the computer that Microsoft has in your house
How much longer till Microsoft uses Windows computers across the world as a botnet. For working on it’s AI. Or some other bullshit.
And how long before the come into your house, steal your stuff, and kick your dog?
And you’ll have to pay them a subscription fee to do it. If you don’t pay, your computer is bricked.
lmao its a matter of time before MS decides they need to DDoS someone so hard their data center explodes and they’ll be ready to do it
Not sure if it’s still a thing but I remember they also used windows to distribute updates to other windows PCs in a bittorrent-like fashion.
Blizzard used to do that as well with world of Warcraft updates IIRC ( during vanilla )
So does War Thunder. Makes sense from a CDN perspective.
They did, and we’re really up front about it being an opt-in thing, if I remember correctly. Might have started that easy with Microsoft, too. But they can’t resist enshitifying.
It still does it. The only thing is that the awareness of this feature was spread in a way to make it sound like it was just stealing your internet for nothing (which looking at it one way, it was) so most people just turned it off.
Honestly that can be a good thing, especially if you have more than one windows PC in your household, it’s only downloading them once then sharing the updates about over the LAN
Ya in the business world that’s what WSUS is/was for
the most enraging thing i’ve ever experienced on windows was when they started automatically “off-loading” files on my drive because i was running out of space. what the fuck, fuck you, i needed that, die in a fire and never touch my drive again. if i need more space i will fucking make more space
Ah, but those aren’t really your files. You clicked “Agree” on the 10,000 page EULA so now Microsoft owns you body and soul and all of your offspring out to the 17th generation. They’re just moving around their contracted work product and if you don’t like it you can go pound sand, assuming you pay Microsoft $30/mo for the “Pound SandTM” account license.
Do I look like I know what a OneDrive is?
I just need a picture of a god danged hot dog
All hail the Blessed Virgin!
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I wish more people were open to learning how to properly configure Windows for family members who will likely never switch to Linux.
That shit situation sounds entirely avoidable.
I set up my 90 year old grandmother with Ubuntu; she was extremely open to learning. If somebody’s got to learn something, then why not the more useful skill? That’s better for the user, the teacher, and society at large.
Even a lot of young people are simply unwilling to learn something different if there’s any way to avoid it. Your grandmother is not at all typical.
In my family we make fun of those people
Somewhere, a Genie is howling with laughter at the magnitude of that wasted wish.
The moment a lawyer saves their medical records in a way that unintentionally and without their consent uploads them to OneDrive, they have a pretty solid case to charge Microsoft for a HIPAA violation.
HIPAA doesn’t even require encryption. It’s considered “addressable”. They just require access be “closed”. You can be HIPAA compliant with just Windows login, event viewer, and notepad.
(Also HIPAA applies to healthcare providers. Adobe doesn’t need to follow HIPAA data protection, though they probably do because it’s so lax, just because you uploaded a PDF of a medical bill to their cloud.)
HIPAA applies to whichever entity consciously chooses to move/store data.
Generally, after a patient downloads a healthcare-related item, they are that entity - and as the patient, they have full control/decisions about where it goes, so they can’t violate their own HIPAA agreement even if they print it and scatter it to the wind.
BUT, if your operating system “decides” to upload that document without the user’s involvement, then Microsoft is that entity - and having not received conscious permission from the patient, would be in violation. It’s an entirely different circumstance if the user is always going through clear prompts, but their more recent OneDrive Backup goal has been extremely forceful and easy to accidentally turn on - even to the point of being hard to disable. As you said, encryption has nothing to do with it.
No. Microsoft is not liable, at least when it applies to HIPAA.
The HIPAA Rules apply to covered entities and business associates.
Individuals, organizations, and agencies that meet the definition of a covered entity under HIPAA must comply with the Rules’ requirements to protect the privacy and security of health information and must provide individuals with certain rights with respect to their health information. If a covered entity engages a business associate to help it carry out its health care activities and functions, the covered entity must have a written business associate contract or other arrangement with the business associate that establishes specifically what the business associate has been engaged to do and requires the business associate to comply with the Rules’ requirements to protect the privacy and security of protected health information. In addition to these contractual obligations, business associates are directly liable for compliance with certain provisions of the HIPAA Rules.
If an entity does not meet the definition of a covered entity or business associate, it does not have to comply with the HIPAA Rules. See definitions of “business associate” and “covered entity” at 45 CFR 160.103.
https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/covered-entities/index.html
LOL. You really think Microsoft doesn’t have an army of lawyers ensuring they comply with laws like HIPAA?
When they’re specifically writing business plans designed for hospitals, sure, they can likely account for it. But not when designing end user services that are laissez-faire about user data privacy - on the random things people put in “My Documents”. As with many organizations, it’s very possible the two parts of the corporation don’t talk to each other.
That’s not how it works. Microsoft knows Windows will be used in medical settings. They know “but it’s a product for home users” won’t be an effective defense if they cause a HIPAA violation.
They also should “know” that being forceful about backup prompts, AI features, and major version upgrades will irritate users into switching off their OS, and yet they’re doing it anyway. Logic is not driving their actions; greed for data is.
Microsoft makes is money by selling products and services. Your data is not nearly as valuable as you think it is.
https://www.hipaajournal.com/onedrive-hipaa-compliant/#
Totally feasible to use onedrive.
However I’ve got no sympathy for even a small business to use IT without someone configuring their system in a way that controls this. A lawyer of all people know that knowledge is worth something.
It is feasible to CHOOSE to use OneDrive and take all the proper precautions. We’re talking about home users getting OneDrive data uploaded without their consent through their “push assumed default”, and “giant popup, tiny cancel” setups.
The article you link only says it’s okay when using a OneDrive business plan together with a signed agreement.
You should be, if you’re in a work computer with privileged documents, controlling it with an appropriate level of care. No matter Linux or Windows. If you’re using home and defaults, you’ve failed no matter what.
We’re not talking about work computers. We’re talking about patients - end users who have downloaded documents from their doctor.
These people should not be blamed for using defaults, or for insecure actions happening from their inaction.
I said home computers multiple times and you again replied about work environments. You need to start paying attention.
The moment a lawyer saves their medical records in a way that unintentionally and without their consent uploads them to OneDrive, they have a pretty solid case to charge Microsoft for a HIPAA violation
Are we talking about the same comment?
Lawyers, once they take off the suit and go home to their kids, are end users, not businesses. It would simply be easier for someone to initiate the lawsuit if they have a background in law.
Ah you’re thinking I’m reading your other comments to other people.
BTW HIPAA is for providers for their patients information handling. Once it’s in the person’s hands, it’s no longer under HIPPA and it no longer applies. If you decide to put your private medical information on a commercial advertisement board on a highway, and it’s not breaking laws to do with acceptable adcertisement (eg gore or smut) you’ll be able to do that to.
Basically theres no expectation for a individual person to adhere to HIPPA for their own personal information storage and it doesn’t apply.
My assumption with your lawyer comment, is this was a insurance or otherwise medical malpractice lawyer who might collect this information for their client cases, since without having client/patient requirements, HIPPA is irrelevant.
Does Dolphin map onedrive?
You could use that as your file explorer
However Microsoft doesn’t let you set it as the native dialogue yet so it won’t solve the issue
switch to Linux or deal with it.
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I think they mean Linux
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I’d like to… Spend some time… with some witches. Know which woods?
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I’ll take my chances.
For the uninitiated (like me before searching for this):
That’s incredible. Gonna try this out when people mention being sick of windows bloat
Gotta combine this with the massgrave activation script to give Microsoft the ultimate finger
This is why i went to Linux. This stuff needs to stop.
This is a setting in Excel. But Cloud is the default option.
When are we getting an antitrust for trying to cram down our throats the cloud?
The cloud doesn’t exist. It’s just some other computer that you don’t own.
People don’t get sued for shoving other fictitious concepts down our throats… Religion comes to mind.
When there’s some semblance of a government that works in the public interest.
Be like the EU, at least in that regard :)
Weeeeell… While it’s not anywhere as bad as the US here, EU governments are also very much beholden to the owner class.
The cloud doesn’t exist. It’s just some other computer that you don’t own.
People don’t get sued for shoving other fictitious concepts down our throats… Religion comes to mind.
Thing is M$ is showing you the cloud as the first option to make you use it and buy more space when you need it.
Google got sued for making the google the default chrome search engine without asking the user. I think M$ is doing the same with the cloud storage but asking you with a pen about to mark their option. And the programs don’t even remember you didn’t choose the cloud the last time.
The cloud is a shitload of computers connected in such a way that it’s far more reliable than any single computer, and so you don’t need to care about which computer is doing what.
Yes, those computers physically exist somewhere and are owned by someone, but saying the cloud doesn’t exist is just ridiculous. May as well say clouds in the sky don’t exist either because they’re just water.
That’s just it, the “cloud” is just a fancy name for a cluster that’s owned by someone else. Everything you’ve described as what a “cloud” is, has already been defined.
The term “cloud” is a marketing vapor term that loosely refers to a cluster of hypervisors. That’s how hypervisors at large scale are pretty much always organized.
The hypervisors in use are not something most people have ever heard of. The most commonly known contenders are hyper-v (which is the basic technology that Azure is built on), and VMware. But most major “cloud” providers, with the exception of Azure, are using something else entirely.
The same description you’ve provided can also be applied to modern super computers, mainframes, and pretty much anything that lives inside a datacenter.
A personal computer has a multitude of single points of failure. A single power supply on a single circuit, a single processor, with all memory controllers in that same processor, a single OS drive, a single network interface. Servers generally have multiple power supplies, multiple CPUs, multiple disk drive controllers, connected to multiple disks in some kind of raid or equivalent. Basically all single points of failure, with few exceptions (such as power management/distribution, and the motherboard) have been removed.
Then you take the servers and scale up to a whole cluster of servers and you get so much more redundancies. A cluster, when done properly is basically bullet proof for failures. Making it larger both increases capacity and redundancy. Without increasing latency. Again, when done right.
In all, “cloud” is a marketing buzzword. I don’t know of anyone in tech that calls a “cloud” by that name unless they’re talking to someone who doesn’t know that a “cloud” is fictitious.
The term “cloud” is a marketing vapor term
I’ma stop you right there. I’m a software engineer who’s implemented a lot of cloud-based stuff. It’s a term of art, not just a marketing word.
ah time for horror stories with sparky:
I know of people who work in IT and use onedrive as a shitty version of github for sharing and version controlling code… If I was them, I’d alteast use syncthing
+1 for syncthing
I use it for synching my Obsidian notes folder between my phone and PC
(and git for versioning and backups)
I don’t understand the hatred of OneDrive. Your documents folder redirects to the OneDrive folder. I guess you have a piece of software that has the documents folder hard coded? Be mad at that software.
If it lost your files after constantly fighting you about where to save them, you would.
Plus the whole not asking to install, then begging for money to upgrade a service you never asked for. Until you finally have to waste hours learning how to completely disable it and get it off of every machine you own…
That breeds some resentment.
I want to have granular control over where my files are stored. If I want them stored in the cloud, I want that to be a choice I consciously make, not something that’s defaulted at the operating system level.
So the hatred isn’t really directed at OneDrive, it’s directed at the fact that the operating system is making decisions for me, and they don’t line up with what I actually want my computer to do.
I haven’t used Windows in a few years (and never used OneDrive), so pinch of salt time, but…
I don’t like the idea of M$ having direct access to all of my files and personal data
That and, there have been mishaps with OD deleting files
Also, i personally don’t like software automagic, especially when i don’t understand what is going on under the hood
Is OD just a folder? Where are my documents actually stored? What happens if my internet goes out? How much do i trust M$ to not bungle something or sell or leak my files?
Encrypt your files before upload them to OneDrive this way you use Microsoft servers and your files cannot be accessed by them to train AI and sell your personal data
Microsoft does not sell personal data. Do you have any idea how fast they’d get sued if there was any evidence of that?
You know who sells your personal data? Data brokers. But they don’t have recognizable names or market their services to consumers, so they’re less satisfying to complain about.
That doesn’t say what you think it says. Microsoft partners are subject to the same confidentiality requirements as Microsoft itself.
Of course COMPANIES will respect your data and will not profit from it. Keep believing
People follow laws. Even people who work for COMPANIES. Everyone is not out to get you.
I respectfully disagree you
Unpopular opinion: OneDrive automatic integration is amazing. Get a new PC, login, boom. PC at your parents’ house? Boom.
I tried open source file syncing and it was jank. Everyone making their own cloud is inefficient anyway.
I just wish windows phone was still a thing and it could all be on the Microsoft account. It remains better value than any other offering.
That said, if it’s not your thing and you don’t want any of it, I agree there should be a big red “I’ve got this” button if you want to go full manual transmission. Well, windows style, maybe circa Windows 7. Linux is only for those for whom playing with settings is why they computer.
Also “personalisation” can eat a dick. And stop fucking asking me for feedback. You get 1 star everytime just for asking. I’m done. /rant
This is not unpopular, just the wrong opinion. “Think different.”
Just curious - do you live your life telling others they are wrong and then provide no counter argument or further info? My disappointment with you is… immeasurable.
What to counter? You like 1drive and i dont.
To paraphrase Office Space:
Let me ask you something. Where you work, does anyone ever tell you to “think different?”
No. No, man. Shit, no, man. I believe you’d get your ass kicked sayin’ something like that, man.
Its a quote from Apple 😭
Nobody has any good explanation for why though.
Even if it wasn’t spyware, there is 0 reason to use it over other options.
What do you recommend?
I want something that I can set up and forget about, that costs a few bucks a month or less, and integrates between all my devices. Security is a given, so let’s assume spyware or not, the data is safe unless I fuck up.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, OneDrive is not a backup solution. You should not be using it to sync files between PCs. It’s at best a data sharing solution which also extensively mines your data. If you’re using OneDrive to backup important information you’ll regret it when your data is gone and there’s no support from Microsoft to resolve it.
Do you have any evidence to support this claim?
Sounds utterly illegal, and likely to lead to countless lawsuits. They’ve got better phone support than Google, especially when you’re a paying customer, and I’m not expecting one of the biggest corporations on the planet to just up and leave with my data, and I’ve sure as shit never heard of it happening.
Microsoft products have a bunch of problems I’m happy to moan about, and a UX team that I swear doesn’t even use M$ products, but data security does not seem to be one of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Sidekick_data_loss
Microsoft’s loss of cloud data for the Sidekick phone was one of the biggest disasters in cloud computing history.
We’ve come a long way since 2009.
It’s not MS but Google Drive suffered data loss back in November. Any company can accidentally fuck something up. That’s why I self host. When I eventually loose data, it will be my own damn fault!
Fair. I’m not knocking that choice if it’s for you. But it isn’t for most people, especially those who are not at all tech savvy.
I work in IT, and almost nobody who opted to use external hard drives for backup is ever up to date with their backups.
“Your house, ahahah, nice one! By the way, rent is going up. How much was ‘your’ raise this year?”
Less than the rate of inflation 😮💨 guess I make less this year than last year.
UMMM ACKTUALLY I’ve got several charts that say you’re richer. You must be lying or lazy. /s
The insurance that costs you $200/month, COULD have cost you $700/month (if you chose this exact plan from this exact provider on your own without HR negotiating a bulk discount)
So, you’re not losing $200, you’re EARNING $500!!!
FaMiLy InCoMe Go Up MeAnS YoU aRe Ok!
…ok, but I’m a “family” of one and your stupid fucking metric is counting multiple incomes as one…
