SkyDrive is widely understood to be one of the best available cloud storage options, which is saying something compared to the likes of DropBox and Google Drive. Yet a curious restriction in Microsoft’s code of conduct may make SkyDrive one of the least attractive cloud storage options, particularly for users that are invested in the Microsoft cloud.
Ramifications for SkyDrive’s restriction
The Microsoft code of conduct concerning nudity and pornography reads as follows:
“Prohibited Uses
You will not upload, post, transmit, transfer, distribute or facilitate distribution 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.
incites, advocates, or expresses pornography, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity, hatred, bigotry, racism, or gratuitous violence.“
Presumably in an effort to curtail pornography, Microsoft has tailored this policy which prohibits even the presence of partial human nudity. The question is, who is the arbiter of this and how is this determined?
Not that it’s especially informative to the piece, but Sebastian Anthony writes on Extreme Tech than pornography may be using up to 30% of the world’s bandwidth and that the requirements to accommodate such high traffic could mean that a site would have to rent servers from a cloud provider like Microsoft Azure. It would be ironic if Azure could host porn sites, but SkyDrive can’t show anything even partially nude.
More than just SkyDrive
Because the prohibited usage provision in the code of conduct also covers Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail), Bing and Office 365, violating the code of conduct in SkyDrive could result in loss of privilege of the entire ecosystem. Imagine uploading a picture of a woman breastfeeding and losing your email. Sound preposterous? Consider this additional passage from the Microsoft CoC:
“Termination and Cancellation
Microsoft reserves the right, at its sole discretion, and without any obligation to do so, to review and remove user-created services and content at will and without notice, and delete content and accounts. Microsoft reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to ban participants or terminate access to services.”
Integration
SkyDrive is reported to be deeply integrated to the upcoming Windows, Office and Windows Phone (and one presumes necessarily to Surface), so this may be an issue that comes to light even more prominently as these products are released.
In any case, the dress code for all photos and videos on SkyDrive is business casual. Dress down at your own risk.
Amada Rosas September 8, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Michelangelo’s sixtine chapel !! Banned! Will the Pope be the owner of Microsoft?
jimdougherty September 8, 2012 at 6:18 pm
The Pope probably has better sense than to want to run Microsoft – don’t you think?
cipnr korvo January 28, 2013 at 6:19 pm
This is completely insane!
It does bring up a good question: Who are they to judge what’s acceptable or not??
What if I live in a country where nude walking and bathing are completely legal (like many in Europe)?
What if I’m a painter and I paint partially nude people (like many many do)?
What if I live in a place where women traditionally don’t wear a top (like places in Africa for example)?
Well will Microsoft simply say I’m not allowed to use their service, and to upload pictures of me and my friends… simply because I come from a different culture than them??
They’re imposing the rules of the most backwards and restrictive states of the U.S., onto the entire world. That’s complete intolerance!
How can they expect us to trust them?
Jim Dougherty January 29, 2013 at 5:59 pm
Thanks Cipnr – it’s been a while since I wrote that one, so I had to reacquaint myself. My opinion now is that trust is irrelevant. Rather than trusting companies with data that could be compromised with any change in terms of service, its incumbent on the user to mitigate risk, whether by redundently backing up data to two or more of these services. Thanks for reading and commenting!