... thanks for the heads up. I was actually starting to like SkyDrive after I got a free winphone and started using the MS ecosystem.

Now, knowing that MS is prone to shutting down the whole account for perceived infractions? I have family photos that aren't backed up anywhere else there. That's not cool.

Honestly, even if this policy was reserved for kiddy-porn and crack-dealers, the "boom your stuff is gone no review no discussion" approach to it means the possibility of a false-positive is scary.

> Now, knowing that MS is prone to shutting down the whole account for perceived infractions?

IIRC, Google is just as prone to doing this too.

> I have family photos that aren't backed up anywhere else there.

Obviously those need to be backed up. Problem solved.

Err if you put all your eggs in one basket then you're just being an idiot.

Get a domain, forward it to service X and Y, back it up regularly, sorted.

This applies to ALL services be they free or paid.

Saying that I've had the same hotmail/msn/live/outlook account since 1997 without a problem.

You don't need to go that far back in time:

Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal;

The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-c...

True, but the NSA snooping is different than Microsoft employees looking at your pictures to make sure they are "family friendly." I hope.

Diddums. Most of it goes over SMTP in plain text anyway.

If you want secure communications, you don't use email or you use something you control.

There has long been an expectation of formalized privacy in emails, which was asserted in numerous laws -- basically extending the concept of regular mail to the electronic counterpart.

It's like saying "most regular envelopes go through the Post Office using plain vans, if you want secure communication you send it in an armoured van staffed by personally-vetted Congolese mercenaries". Nobody touches Post Office vans not because they're hard to assault (they're not), but because they're shielded with thick walls of law.

I know that smtp is more like sending postcards and yadda yadda yadda, but that's not what most legal systems have assumed for 20 years, nor what the public at large expects.

I agree with you but the expectation always needs to match reality. Many civilization had fallen to this sort of ignorance.

The expectation and reality should both be "they can view the mail at certain stages but if they get caught they're getting the book thrown at them, and the incentives are aligned that breaches will be reported".

But but but... They saaaay they will be nice. https://pay.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m926j/we_are_the_out...

Use PGP. With your existing email address, and without the fuss: https://parley.co (I'm one of the people building it, and now that outlook.com supports IMAP, we support outlook.com ;)

At least that reduces my options back to one again! I hadn't seen that before, thanks.