Just when we thought all of the SkyDrive privacy hubbub had died down, a user on the Chinese tech site (and yes - it is in Chinese) is reporting that Microsoft has blocked his account in an incident that sounds a lot like the one we reported on back in July.
Basically, a user going by the name of qinmoon, a member of a website called PC Beta, shared a message from Microsoft stating that his account had been blocked over a breach of Microsoft's code of conduct, although they refused to share any specific details with him. Now, that all sounds pretty standard, but qinmoon says that the only thing stored on his SkyDrive besides his school notes were some manga-style images and wallpapers which happened to feature several incredibly cute and scantily clad women.
Microsoft gave him 48 hours to appeal the closure of the account before his data was deleted, but when he tried to do that (and just for Microsoft's sake, it's worth noting that he didn't supply the appeal he sent them, only their response), he was turned down and apparently lost all of his data, including some very important class materials. Ouch.
So let this be a lesson to you, dear Neowin readers: don't upload anything remotely steamy to your SkyDrive. Even if it's just a harmless drawing, it could well get you in trouble, even if it is set to private. Microsoft apparently does a pretty thorough job of screening everything that goes into their servers (if you're interested in finding out more about how all of this happens, check out this statement they sent us a couple of months ago), and they're not afraid of being overly cautious. And considering the errors being made by some of Microsoft's other automatic enforcement programs, we can't help but wonder how accurate their SkyDrive policing is.
And really, why shouldn't they be? We're pretty sure that they don't want SkyDrive to become the next MegaUpload, and with over-zealous restrictions hanging over their head, privacy takes a backseat. Unfortunately, with SkyDrive, and cloud storage in general, becoming more integral to computing by the day, it's a worrying trend.
Source: PC Beta | Image via PC Beta
Thanks to Neowin member FaiKee for the tip
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