One Drive Sharing concerns

Tabitha_T

I sent an email to a family member and inserted three photos from One Drive camera roll (my photos being automatically copied between my Nokia phone and my Windows 8.1 laptop).

However, I'm concerned that I don't correctly know how this application works. I have a horrible feeling that in some way I have given said family member access to not just my three photos, but all my One Drive content which seems to include various file documents etc. (I've also no idea how this stuff came to be on One Drive, I'm not aware of having 'enabled' this copy file/document facility?). I'm beginning to feel like Microsoft are slowly taking over my life and all things within it...

If anybody can shed light on this I would be most grateful, thanks! Tabs

jamesperrett

Did you insert the actual files or did you just send links to the files? If you sent the actual files then you're safe - the email will be a few MB in size in this case. If you sent links then there's a possibility that they'll be able to see other things but I'm not sure how Microsoft handle permissions in this case.

Google allows you to do something similar from most Android devices but the photos are always private unless you specifically change the permissions to share them. I find this automatic photo backup very handy.

Tabitha_T

Thanks James, well, from within Hotmail I clicked 'Insert' then 'Share from OneDrive' and it went straight to Camera Roll. I then 'checked' the boxes of three pics and clicked 'Open'. The message in the Hotmail message says (to the recipient) that there is a file to share on OneDrive, and to view it, click the link below. The 'link' though is only shown as the actual three photos.

Does that make sense? I'm rather concerned about this...I do agree though that the automatic photo backup is great, it's just this OneDrive privacy thing I'm worried about, or potential lack of it! (I thought I'd read somewhere that all files are private by default...?).
Cheers, Tabs

RumRat

People can only view what you actually share. You can link individual photo's or whole folders. Anything else you have as private cannot be seen.
I'm guessing you are using Windows 8.1? When you log onto your PC with a Microsoft account, it is probably set to auto upload your documents as well.
Some info on OneDrive HERE...
It's nothing to worry about and you can be in complete control. Just spend some time with that tutorial and relax.

Tabitha_T

Hi, thank you so much, great advice and much appreciated, you've put my mind at rest. Just sitting down to go through the tutorial, cheers for the link. Tabs :T

Strider590

Sounds like the sort of "lets simplify this for idiots" thing that would drive me nuts.

Not unlike how when people connect to my home network with an iPhone/iPad, the bloody things scan all my shared folders and drop a bunch of index files in them.
Access is not a problem, but if people need files, let them go look for them properly, not just show them automatically so that any tom/!!!!!!/harry can mess with them without knowing exactly what they are or where they are located...... As on a number of occasions i've had stuff deleted because the user thought the files were on their own device!!!