When is your data not your own? When it's in the cloud

by
in security on (#3MK)
story imageI've got Captain Obvious on the line, and he'd like you to know: the data you store in the cloud isn't private. You might be thinking, "I knew that." But it's news to some, like this guy, who got busted for possession of illegal pornographic images (child porn) , after backing up his computer to a Verizon cloud backup service. Bonus: he was the deacon of a Catholic school in Baltimore county: oops.
Turns out, cloud storage providers routinely sweep stored data, using hashes for known illegal images or media files. If they find one, you're toast.

From Ars Technica:
When Congress passed the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008 mandating that service providers report suspected child pornography in the content that their customers surf and store, the law gave providers an out: if they couldn't check, they wouldn't know, and they wouldn't have to report it. But while checking is still voluntary, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has been pushing providers to use image-matching technology to help stop the spread of child pornography.
This isn't breaking news: the articles date back to March. But it's still relevant in the framework of the ongoing discussion of cloud-versus-local and the rights of authorities to revise your computing habits.

Microsoft comes right out with it (Score: 2, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-05-21 20:48 (#1TN)

Here's a good article about Microsoft's service agreement: http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/19/cloud-restrictions-porn-xxx/

None is more restrictive than Microsoft's SkyDrive . Check out the first two parts of the Windows Live code of conduct that governs SkyDrive:
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 nonhuman forms such as cartoons, fantasy art or manga.
"¢ incites, advocates, or expresses pornography, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity, hatred, bigotry, racism, or gratuitous violence.
The code of conduct is much larger than this, but already this list has some serious issues. From the looks of it, you can't store nude or partially nude drawings (sorry, Titanic fans and fine art lovers ) or your favorite legally purchased adult porn movie. Because Bugs Bunny wears no clothes, I guess he's off limits, too.
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