Yahoo! Get away from there - QUICKLY!

Although I am on vacation this is too important for quite a few of my customers. Here it goes:

If you have a Yahoo email address you need to read this! All others can relax - for now.

It has happened; this ZD-Net article has the details why for some of their users Yahoo has made it impossible to access their emails. Currently for "some users" only but what if this "test" proves successful for Yahoo? They will do it to all accounts! You can bet on that!

Why did these good people with a Yahoo email address get bloaked from accessing their emails? They used an Ad blocker because

1. they could not stand the many obnoxious ads and/or
2. they had heard about the many virus infected ads Yahoo has served in the past or
3. they just happen to be my customers.

My recommendation: Set up a Gmail account with Google. Be careful to give Google only the minimally required info about yourself.

Then set up your new Gmail account to automatically pull all mails from the Yahoo account. Google so far always has been far better at blocking malicious content from the Internet.

Let's hope that Yahoo's attempt to force feed advertisements fizzles out and becomes a big failure.

Why Not Windows 10?

I have been asked one too many times why I oppose Windows 10. Here is some more fodder for thought.

Besides all eventual arguments for or against technical merit here are only three facts that everybody can check out in Microsoft's Terms of Use for Windows 10. Every single install of Windows 10 must agree to Microsoft's Terms And Conditions for use of Windows 10. This is (supposedly) a 12,000 word document. Everybody I know, me included, just clicks on Agree - and Microsoft knows that.


We usually allow Windows 10 to install with Express Settings (the default that most people choose!); in the Terms of Use we can find that we agree among others goodies to:

1. Windows 10 is logging all keystrokes
    
2. Windows 10 is always listening to the microphone
    
3. Microsoft will turn over all your data and info about you to authorities

Re. point #1: 

Programs that log our keystrokes on the functional level of the operating system (or even below that) have always been called Key Loggers and always have by all security systems been flagged as viruses and removed.

Just think of every keystroke being logged and stored at MS (Microsoft); what about your username(s) and password(s)? What about account details like credit card or bank or investment account numbers?

Re. point #2:

Many desktop computers and virtually all laptop computers have a microphone. Windows 10 will record and store on MS's servers every spoken word that reaches the microphone while the computer is running. Big Brother is always listening!

Windows 10 will (at least try to) make an automatic backup copy of every file you create on your computer and store that copy on MS's servers. What about confidentiality requirements? No lawyer, doctor, real estate agent, CPA or PI can ever use Windows 10; actually everybody who by law is required to respect and guarantee any degree of confidentiality should never use Windows 10. 

Re. point #3:

That sounds kind of "normal" and okay - on the surface at least.

BUT: MS does not say that they require a court order or warrant for that.
Any "authority" can request and will receive all your files and all information about you that MS has gathered.

With no court order at all!

Then there is yet another side to the whole thing that, for me at least, is even more scary; although I have to warn you, it will take 30 minutes away from your busy day to listen to this "video" - which actually is a recorded audio interview.

As usual I welcome comments and suggestions right here in the blog. Thank you in advance.

For whatever reason the darned TOC (Table Of Contents) feature that I got from Google does not work any longer, sorry. And I just don't have the time to hunt down another solution; if you know one please tell me in a comment. Thank you.

Cloud Storage - again

May 5th 2013 I documented my opinion about cloud storage based on a real life example with Google's service.

Today I ran across a similar example based on Microsoft's service named "LiveDrive". Here is the original text:

LiveDrive has started closing people's accounts without warning.  Not everyone's account, of course.  Just a few.  And when those people contact the company to ask why, they're told that they were breaching the terms of their "unlimited storage" package by, er, storing too much stuff.

If this happens to you, and you make a fuss, LiveDrive will restore your access in order that you can retrieve any important data.  However, in the experience of a couple of friends of mine, this access has its bandwidth throttled to such a degree that it is virtually impossible to download anything.  So your files are pretty much lost.

So again, as a reminder, cloud storage services may be convenient but:

Your data is not safe!

You can lose access any time without warning! 

Always keep the original file locally stored and locally backed up! But does that not blow the loudly touted advantages of cloud-backup clearout of the water?


Sometimes I am outright fascinated by how easily people can be made to believe in third parties they have absolutely no control over.

IMHO at least the cloud is no place to entrust my most important documents and irreplaceable memories (aka pictures) with.

As usual I welcome comments and suggestions right here in the blog. Thank you in advance.

Click here for a categorized Table Of Contents.

Micro$oft's new Terms and Conditions - A Bombshell

Microsoft Corp. changes their Terms and Conditions. Not that big an issue for me but when I think of millions of Windows 8 users who get tricked, conned and arm-twisted into establishing a "Microsoft Account", well, then I get a queasy stomach.

If I add in the many millions of unsuspecting users of email accounts with hotmail.com, outlook.com, live.com and other M$ server names then the I get really nauseous.

And when I think of hundreds of millions of Windows 8 and Office 2013/365 users whose data gets "automatically stored in the cloud" plus many small businesses that think "cloud backup" is a good solution, man, then I actually want to p**e. 

To spare you (and me) wading through lots of legalese details here only hree quotes from Micro$oft's original text (highlights by me, some editing lost in transferring the text): 

• 10.3. Binding arbitration. If you and Microsoft don't resolve any dispute by informal negotiation or in small claims court, any other effort to resolve the dispute will be conducted exclusively by individual binding arbitration governed by the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"). Class arbitrations aren't permitted. you're giving up the right to litigate disputes in court before a judge or jury (or participate in court as a party or class member). Instead, all disputes will be resolved before a neutral arbitrator, whose decision will be final except for a limited right of appeal under the FAA. Any court with jurisdiction over the parties may enforce the arbitrator’s award.
• 10.4. Class action waiver. Any proceedings to resolve or litigate any dispute in any forum will be conducted solely on an individual basis. Neither you nor Microsoft will seek to have any dispute heard as a class action, private attorney general action, or in any other proceeding in which either party acts or proposes to act in a representative capacity. No arbitration or other proceeding will be combined with another without the prior written consent of all parties to all affected arbitrations or proceedings.

• 11. NO WARRANTIES

  
  

  MICROSOFT, AND OUR AFFILIATES, RESELLERS, DISTRIBUTORS, AND VENDORS, MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, GUARANTEES OR CONDITIONS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND THAT WE PROVIDE THE SERVICES ON AN “AS IS” BASIS “WITH ALL FAULTS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” MICROSOFT DOESN'T GUARANTEE THE ACCURACY OR TIMELINESS OF INFORMATION AVAILABLE FROM THE SERVICES. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER YOUR LOCAL LAW, WE EXCLUDE ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING FOR MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WORKMANLIKE EFFORT, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. YOU MAY HAVE CERTAIN RIGHTS UNDER YOUR LOCAL LAW. NOTHING IN THIS AGREEMENT IS INTENDED TO AFFECT THOSE RIGHTS, IF THEY ARE APPLICABLE.

  YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT COMPUTER AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS AREN'T FAULT-FREE AND OCCASIONAL PERIODS OF DOWNTIME OCCUR. WE DON'T GUARANTEE THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE OR THAT CONTENT LOSS WON'T OCCUR.  

 If I still can read correctly the very last part of the last sentence "... or that content loss won't occur." contains the admission that Micro$oft can not guarantee availability of their services and that you data will be available to you when you need it.

This is much worse than expressed in my previous diatribe about cloud storage services.

And trust me, just by using any Micro$oft service you have agreed to these Term of Service.  Even if you only use your copy of Windows 8 that you set up with a MS account you have agreed to these Terms!

As usual I welcome comments and suggestions right here in the blog. Thank you in advance.

Click here for a categorized Table Of Contents.

 

NO to Office 2013, Office 365 and Microsoft Accounts in general

I stumbled over this article about lack of basic security features in Microsoft's cloud offerings.

I feel confirmed when I say

• do not use a Microsoft account
  
• do not use MS Office 2013 or MS Office 365
  
• do not use Sky Drive (Microsoft's cloud storage option)

For everybody using Windows 8 that means they should cancel their Microsoft accounts and they should convert the account on the computer to a local account.

If you can't find out how to do that, you know who can help, right?

At least Office 2013 can be used without a Microsoft account; I don't know for sure about Office 365.

There are many cloud storage services that do not entail the usual "Microsoft risks" for lack of a better word.

As usual I welcome suggestions and comments right here in the blog.

Click here for a categorized Table Of Contents.

   

 

Microsoft Accounts and Windows 8 – A Rant

In a nutshell, any email address can become a Microsoft account just by “registering” it with Microsoft (MS). Almost any live, usable email address is acceptable. But since we talk about MS it actually is not quite that simple; there are, for lack of a better word, implications.

Any email address with or issued by any MS service is a Microsoft account. Some of these services are Hotmail, Microsoft Passport, Microsoft Live, MSN, Outlook email service, .NET Passport, Member Services Passport, Messenger ID, Windows Live ID, Xbox Live ID, Zune/Zune Pass ID, Windows Phone and SkyDrive ID. To name only the most well known ones.

I documented my opinion about MS accounts already in October 2012 in my blog post “What does Microsoft want to do with Windows 8?”.

Have you ever set up a new Windows 8 computer? Or, even worse, updated from Windows 8 to 8.1? MS goes through quite some trouble and IMHO actually tries hard to literally trick you into setting up Win8 with a MS account. I wrote here in some detail about the tricks MS uses.

I smell a rat and my opinion voiced in “What does Microsoft want to do with Windows 8?” has only been confirmed by MS' shenanigans and seemingly desperate attempts to make us use a MS account.

With establishing a MS account you get automatically some GB of “free storage space” on SkyDrive, MS' cloud storage service. Again, that sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Like in “free is always good”. For the home user “cloud storage” is nothing but a glorifying name for a File Hosting service.

It may only be me but I am troubled by getting sucked into using SkyDrive. In May 2013 I documented my personal take on cloud storage; IMHO much more revealing is what the rest of the world thinks about this.

Disclaimer: Yes, I know that there are advantages to cloud storage and I use it to some extent.

The brighter side is that it is fairly easy to avoid all the implications of MS accounts and cloud storage, even when using Windows 8. Win8 can be set up to work nicely with a conventional local computer account without any direct connection to MS. And it works very nicely in desktop mode, just like we have gotten familiar with during the last 20 years. 

The main reason that MS gives for all this is that you can log into your MS account from many different computers or tablets or smart phones and you will have everywhere “your” desktop, the sane apps and programs, your individual settings and even via SkyDrive the same data files. Sounds almost too good to be true, right?

Smart phones are telephones with lots of added computer like capabilities and very small touch enabled screens.

Tablets are easily portable media consumption devices with added computer like capabilities and relatively small touch enabled screens.

Computers can be more or less of all of the above plus I can get work done on them. I can not write this blog on either a smart phone or a tablet! So far at least computers usually do not have touch enabled monitors (screens).

And frankly, do you know how heavy your hand gets when you stretch your arm forward only for two minutes? Thank you Microsoft, but I DO NOT WANT to be forced to stretch my arm and work with my fingers on a computer monitor; and so do literally all of my customers.

As usual I welcome comments and suggestions right here in the blog. Thank you in advance.

Click here for a categorized Table Of Contents.

2013 12 02 WTKM Talking Points (Dec 2nd 2013)

An epidemic of a new kind of malware; see:
       PuPs - No Virus But just as Nasty  and
       How Malware Gets Installed 

       These malwares increasingly embed Bitcoin mining into toolbars, toolbar helpers and
       search agents.

New zero-day hole in IE (all versions).

Many more scam phone calls claiming computer infections.

       Microsoft (and MS affiliates) do not know about us!
Do not let them work on your computer!
Do not give them any credit card information!
I have seen one case where these crooks used a known company name (iWon) to install PuPs (see above); they probably get money for every installation that they do.
The guys who did this one were not even good at it!

Fake Skype voicemail alert: Email comes packed with a variant of notorious ZeuS banking Trojan.
Messages typically come with subject line “You received a new message from Skype voicemail service”; it contains a copyright notice and a disingenuous warning that "Skype staff will NEVER ask you for your password via email".
The purpose of this email is to get you to download and open the attached 'voicemail' file; this then installs the Zeus trojan. 

Crypto Locker virus: Maintain regular backups of data, keep backups separate from computer.

CL encryption is essentially uncrackable (except by the NSA?).
CL infects all current versions of Windows, XP through 8.
If you are somewhat technically adept and/or have someone on your computer you can't fully trust and you want protection from CL then considerCryptoPrevent.
Protecting your computer from CL is easy with best practices (aka common sense).

Windows 8.1 rolled out Oct 17. NOT via Automatic Update, rather you have to go to the MS store!
 This forces you to use a Microsoft account!

Updating from 8 to 8.1
      BIG download (> 311MB). More details here (Oct. 2013)
      Too big for comfort on standard DSL connections.

New Windows 8 computer?

Don't use a Microsoft account! (privacy vs. convenience)
More info: What Exactly is a Microsoft Account
Either way MS tracks all searches, local & internet. (NO to Bing)
Turn off Smart Search
Use Classic Shell (free) or Start8 ($5) to start into desktop.
Install VLC media player (MS removed Media Player!)

Win XP? Your risk of virus infection is SIX times higher that with Win 8 - NOW.

Unpatched XP SP3 vulnerability with older versions of Adobe Reader than 11.0.04. XP users with the latest versions of Adobe Reader (11.0.4 and up) are immune. UPGRADE Adobe Reader.

Facebook is reportedly testing to track cursor movement (silently track a user's actions); tracks how individual visitors respond to ads for better targeting advertising!

Adobe's servers hacked. 38 million user names and passwords plus source code stolen.

Please listen to WTKM on 104.9FM, Monday, Dec. 2nd from 10:00AM to 11:00AM.

Windows 8: What the Rest of the World Thinks

Recently on a Microsoft run web site and Windows 8 blog I ran across a reply to an article written by a Dutch IT consultant.

It summarizes what I have glanced from many, many similar comments I have read. I have modified some language and grammar quirks and fixed some misspelled words to convey the meaning correctly and in correct English.

Yes  it's true; Microsoft wants us to massively migrate to Microsoft based cloud based services. But in my country that will not happen as Microsoft wants it, especially   because these "virtual cloud services" are to 85% physically located within the USA.  

That is for most foreign people simply unacceptable. It's not only for reasons like privacy, piracy, taxes, company secrets - there is also a difference in mind-sets.

What if our sensitive data sits there in a physical data center somewhere in the US of A, and 'shit' really starts happening, like for instance war, wide spread diseases, natural disaster, terrorism attack, you name it -  anything could happen anywhere.

Foreigners don't trust CIA/FBI/NSA that much, we learned from the past months.

My customers are saying..., even refusing, to migrate their financial and sensitive business data to somewhere in the 'Microsoft' or even  the 'Amazon cloud'; abroad, unknown where it really is, in a far away foreign country, and nobody knows, or even checks what is happening to their data. It may be leaked to the NSA, via a built-in back door when Micro$oft sold this opportunity to the NSA/US-Government.

 No, sorry, not with us!  We aren't like that!

We even don't come close to this kind of behavior.

Yes, people in other countries don't trust their sensitive data into American hands; they approach privacy questions with a totally different mind set.

Maybe Microsoft's management better begin to acknowledge that not everybody will follow to where they, Microsoft and others, want to lead us?

What may be good for Microsoft may not be that good for the other 310+ million Americans. And what may be "good for Microsoft's America" may not be that good for the other 95% of the world population. 

In my opinion this is NOT a technical problem, it is an ethical problem. There are just too many of us who check their ethics and morals at the entrance of the office building before they begin their daily jobs.

No, it's not government agencies or organizations or companies that "do the wrong thing"; all these entities are run by people that collectively make questionable decisions.

As usual I welcome suggestions and comments right here in the blog.

Click here for a categorized Table Of Contents.

2013 10 07 WTKM Talking Points (Oct 7th 2013)

As you may know on the first Monday of every month I am "guest of honor" for computer questions in a live call-in talk show on our local radio station WTKM on FM 104.9 out of Hartford, Wisconsin.

I have decided to publish my Talking Points for the show here on my blog so that interested listeners can easily follow links to other websites with much more detailed information than can be explained on air.

Windows 8.1 rolls out Oct 17.

New Windows 8 computer?
I use and set up "local account" ONLY!
Don't use Microsoft account! (privacy vs. convenience)
More info: What Exactly is a Microsoft Account
Either way MS tracks all searches, local & internet. (NO to Bing)
Turn off Smart Search
Use Classic Shell (free) or Start8 ($5)
Install VLC media player (MS removed Media Player!)

Recent Windows Update problems:Mostly caused by pre existing registry corruption. Quote:

On Windows 7 . . .  Registry cleaners might be at fault.
Those utilities were helpful with Windows XP, but they might
easily cause more problems than they fix in Windows 7 (or Win8).

Micro$oft had to re-issue updates from Sept. 9^th.

Instead of registry cleaners run sfc /scannow as administrator. See MS Support article 929833 for instructions on SFC and other advanced troubleshooting tips.

Can't boot your game disk (CD or DVD) on your brand new Windows 8 computer?
Thank Micro$oft's and UEFI's Secure Boot. For details on the difference between
BIOS and UEFI see this article: The pitfalls of Windows 8′s Secure Boot   

Windows 8 lures the user into MS accounts and into MS cloud services.

The rest of the world and Windows 8:

Yes  it's true; Microsoft wants us to massively migrate to Microsoft based cloud services. But in my country that will not happen as Microsoft wants it, especially   because these "virtual cloud services" are to 85% physically located within the USA.  

That is for most foreign people simply unacceptable. It's not only for reasons like privacy, piracy, taxes, company secrets - there is also a difference in mind-sets.

What if our sensitive data sits there in a physical data center somewhere in the US of A, and bad things really start happening, like for instance war, wide spread diseases, natural disaster, terrorism attack, you name it -  anything could happen anywhere.

Foreigners don't trust CIA/FBI/NSA that much, we learned from the past months.

My customers are saying..., even refusing, to migrate their financial and sensitive business data to somewhere in the 'Microsoft' or even  the 'Amazon cloud'; abroad, unknown where it really is, in a far away foreign country, and nobody knows, or even checks what is happening to their data. It may be leaked to the NSA, via a built-in back door when Micro$oft sold this opportunity to the NSA/US-Government.

 No, sorry, not with us!  We aren't like that!

We even don't come close to this kind of behavior.

Java needs to be kept up to date! As of Sept.15^th 2013 it is version 7.0.40 

Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader need to be kept up to date! Even businesses fail to do this!

Still running Windows XP?
Time to buy a new computer! (with very few exceptions only!)

New, massiveky exploited flaw in Internet Explorer! Don't use IE!

Adobe's computer systems have been hit by numerous "sophisticated attacks"; information of 2.9 million customers compromised, the source code of Adobe products accessed.

End of "WTKM Talking Points for October 7th 2013".

As usual I welcome suggestions and comments right here in the blog.  
Click here for a categorized Table Of Contents.

Privacy On The Internet - A Contradiction

Many times I have mentioned one of the more technically oriented info services that I am subscribed to. On that blog I found an IMHO good article about privacy on the internet or, better, the lack thereof. The article is here. I will quote it literally because of a comment I want to add.

1. There is no such thing as 100% privacy on the Internet.
   You can take steps to lessen the intrusions into your privacy but there is no way to guarantee that nothing can be learned about you and your affairs. Learn to live with this reality and act accordingly.
2. Like it or not, you have to trust somebody.
   Anything you do on the Internet has to go through numerous intermediaries, routers, networks, etc. Ultimately, you have to trust the security of your ISP and other services that you use.  VPNs and proxy servers can increase your security but they are not foolproof. 
3. Privacy comes at the cost of convenience.
   The more measures to increase privacy that you use, the more cumbersome using the Internet becomes. Locked doors are harder to use than open ones. The correct trade-off between privacy measures and convenience depends on how you use the Internet. If you like to live dangerously, you may need a lot of privacy measures. If you are a casual web surfer and send harmless emails, not so much. Choose the level of privacy appropriate to your Internet usage.
4. There are innumerable ways to spy on wireless or cell connections.
   There is no standard encryption that can’t be broken and deciphered but using a strong version of WPA encryption on your wireless router is better than not. Avoid using public hot-spots for private business.
5. Assume that all email that you send is public.
   If you must use email to send sensitive material, use some form of strong encryption. Send the encryption key to the recipient by some other means than email.
6. Deleted email is probably still there somewhere.
   You may delete an embarrassing or private email but it may very well still be on the email servers or on the other party's computer.
7. Everything you do or say on the Internet is recorded somewhere, usually in numerous places.
   You can take measures to make it hard to trace your Internet actions back to you personally but there is always the chance that a persistent and technically adept person or agency can track you down. However, most of us aren't important enough to warrant that kind of effort.
8. What you post on social sites might as well be on a public bulletin board.
   Privacy measures at Facebook and other social sites are full of holes. Assume that anybody can see what you post.
9. Be careful what you reveal on the Internet
   Use disposable email addresses and pseudonyms as much as possible. Don't reveal anything you don't have to when signing up for some service. Assume any information you reveal on one site gets shared or sold.
10. It is almost impossible to remove all traces of something once it is on the Internet.
    Those pictures of yourself that you posted when drunk can come back to haunt you years later.
11. Advertisers want to track you.
    Advertisers want to know as much as possible about your activities so they can target their ads for you. They keep developing more and better methods to track your Internet activities. Gizmo’s has many articles about ad blocking and control of tracking cookies. 
12. Monitor your credit cards and bank accounts daily.
    Personal records stored in company databases are stolen all the time. If you have online credit card accounts, monitor them for unauthorized activity daily. Also monitor any online banking or financial accounts daily.

Especially to points numbers 7 through 10 I want to add: Everything you ever put out on the internet will never go away. Clever sleuthing will bring it to the light of the day no matter how firmly you believe that "deleted" items or accounts should be gone for good. Usually they are not gone, you just can't access them anymore.

As usual I welcome suggestions and comments right here in the blog.

Click here for a categorized Table Of Contents.

Passwords - The Latest

Over the years I have written several articles about passwords. I stand by what I wrote back then but everything around computers changes at break neck speeds. Recently I had to completely change my take on passwords.

I read an article on a more technically oriented web site about modern methods of password cracking and much of what I have said in the past about passwords has to be revised. I will update the old articles about passwords to point to this article.

The article I read is here. I will quote the key conclusions and key advice (emphasis added):

1. Long passwords are the best defense. That is nothing new ... [a graphic] shows that the time required for a brute force hack really takes off at around a password length of 7 or 8 characters. Many people recommend 11 or 12 characters [length] for passwords.
    
2. However, just making passwords longer is not enough. ... That means complexity is required in a password, with random mixtures of case, symbols, and numbers. If it is allowed by a service, use a mixture of alphabets.
   Again, nothing new but it really needs to be emphasized that randomness is necessary.
    
3. Various popular substitution methods such as @ for “a” and $ for “s” are too well-known by hackers and don’t add security. ...
    
4. Anytime a service that you use loses password data to a security break-in, your password probably ends up on a list somewhere. You need to change it, no matter what the service says.
    
5. Don’t use the same password everywhere.
   Not new advice but millions of people don’t heed it. 
    
6. The password testers that you see on the web often just look at length. Their results do not take into account compexity and have to be interpreted accordingly.

I admit it, as far as point 5 goes I am guilty as charged.

The long and short of it is that any password you can easily remember is UNsafe!  

I strongly recommend using a password manager. Names that come to mind are LastPass, Dashlane and Keepass. I know there are more but these three seem to be the best reviewed and most secure ones. And these programs and services are free for the computer based versions. If you need this service on one or more cellphones then LastPass costs $12.-/year and Dashlane Premium $20.-/year.

If you are uncomfortable with giving your passwords to a cloud service and if you need to manage passwords only on your single home computer then look at Keepass. 

As usual I welcome comments and suggestions right here in the blog. Thank you in advance.

Click here for a categorized Table Of Contents.

Cloud Storage?

If you want to know what "cloud storage" is please read this explanation on Wikipedia.

I get asked quite often for my opinion on cloud storage including backup solutions "in the cloud". The following begins with a real life experience that some lady had with Google. 

I know from my own attempts to try cloud storage that other services are not that much different - and the legal underpinnings are the same for all anyway. Here we go:

One recent Thursday morning, a dedicated Google user logged into her email and made an alarming discovery. Instead of opening the Inbox, Google directed her to a notice:

[Your] Account has been disabled . . . . In most cases, accounts are disabled if we believe you have violated either the Google Terms of Service, product-specific Terms of Service . . . . or product-specific policies . . . . it might be possible to regain access to your account.

• the terms and policies offered no clues
• no phone numbers to call, no tickets to request help

Google -

• - manages a whopping 343 million active Google+ accounts
• - operates in 130 languages
• - strategically avoids the crush of users by offering little direct customer service.
• - reserves the right to “terminate your account at any time, for any reason, with or without notice.”
• Phone calls to Mountain View [Google HQ] land in a labyrinth of recorded messages that inevitably lead to one of a man, sounding quite exasperated shutting the call down with a “Thank-you-goodbye”.
• - is a company with $50 billion in revenues
• - has the modest aim to “organize the world’s information”
• It seems implicit that in allowing Google to use one's data we should rely on Google to hold on to it and to give it back.

Reality -

• - Google assumes no responsibility over user data
• - Google is not required by law to do so 
• - Google limits its total liability for stolen data, lost data, anything, “TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US TO USE THE SERVICES” (yes, in all caps), which might mean as much as nothing for the most commonly used free accounts.
• - Google reserves the right to take away or vaporize our data for any reason
• - Google also reserves the right to discontinue services, the means to prohibit any access to the data, whenever it wants.

Consequently:

• users are easily discarded
• Google’s priority is preventing data from falling into the wrong hands, not ensuring it is always available to the right hands

My personal conclusion: I don't use cloud storage.

Naturally your mileage may vary. But I recommend you really thoroughly and together with your lawyer work through the details of all applicable Terms Of Service, End User License Agreements and the like.

As usual I welcome comments and suggestions right here in the blog. Thank you in advance.

Click here for a categorized Table Of Contents.