How long will I be able to avoid the cloud?

Brian likes to have everything on his own Windows PC and doesn't want to share anything with others. Can he avoid using the cloud?

How long will I be able to continue avoiding the cloud? I mean things like Microsoft accounts (my computers all use Windows 10), Facebook, Google and so on. I like everything to be stored on my computer and I don't need to "share" stuff with others, but I have a feeling that Microsoft and others want everyone to sign up. BJG

It's almost impossible to avoid the cloud now, because of the movement of commercial and government services to the web, the multiplication of computing devices and the rapid growth in smartphones. These different trends reinforce one another.