Have you had problems using online 'cloud' storage?

Former_MSE_Wendy

If you've stored photos, music, games, videos and other precious items in online 'cloud' storage, the competition watchdog, the CMA, would like to hear about your experiences.

Over the last few years it's become more popular for us to use 'The Cloud' to store, manage and retrieve personal files from different devices and different locations online.

Online storage has lots of benefits but the CMA is also concerned some people are having problems, for example, they might not be getting accurate information about what they are signing up to, contracts may be changed without notice or people are not able to access their information when they want to, so it's reviewing the market to ensure providers are treating people fairly.

How to have your say:

Email your thoughts on the following questions to [EMAIL="cloudstorage@cma.gsi.gov.uk"]cloudstorage@cma.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL] or click reply to share your stories below.

• What do you think are the main benefits of using cloud storage?
• Did you experience any changes after signing up and if so what were they and what was the effect of the change?
• Have you thought about switching providers and if not why not?
• Have you ever complained to a cloud storage provider and were you happy with how your complaint was handled?

somersethillbilly

If you substitute 'The Cloud' with "Someone Else's Computer", then it does n't sound so attractive.

SailorSam

Yes. I downloaded a couple of sites and couldn't figure out what to do,
So all the information is still stored on bits of paper in a drawer.

FlipMartian

I have a few computers and each member of my family has a user account on each. I bought LiveDrive to cover up to 3 computers. I thought everything was being backed up on these computers, but it was only backing up files for the administrator account that I log in as.

Basically every file for every other user (wife and two kids) was never backed up. Since then I have set up the child user accounts as "child accounts" in windows 8.1 so they are now backed up because an administrator is allowed to access all child accounts. My wife's data however will require the purchase of another license to get it backed up. LiveDrive didn't mention that when I signed up ages ago! I was not a happy bunny.

My wife is now using my login on our Mac so her stuff gets backed up, but this is not ideal.

jshm2

"The Cloud" is a pretty murky place. People tend to think of it as a "hard drive in the sky". But often find out to their own data demise it's not quite something as simple.

The CMA is probably looking to enforce some sort of control on the market. Especially considering data protection laws in the UK are different from data protection laws in Amsterdam (where most of the big EU data servers are) for example.

paddyrg

I use cloud sync storage extensively - it's a leap of faith that you aren't going to lose your capacity as Microsoft have recently pulled, but for the most part the benefits of having sync between all my devices outweighs the risks. I love also having 100 previous versions of a file available -not something I need frequently, but a lifesaver if things go wrong - cryptolocker, for instance, would be a miserable inconvenience, but no more.

I've also used S3 and Cloud Front a fair amount, but they're a little more specialised.

lincoln_dj

figured this thread will get full with posts about how bad people's experiences have been, so going to add my positive experience.

3 or 4 years ago now, I bought a 128Gb USB flash drive to store all my music (part time DJ), photos etc on. And one day I lost it! Happened across a service called DropBox and gave it a go.

It has since saved my bacon on several occasions, I have access to all my music, photo's, videos and even some films & stand-up shows for when I'm working away. I've happily paid for the premium option so get over 1Tb of space.

There are also 3rd party apps that work with it. I've hosted files for my website using the service, and have got it to sync with my university FTP storage - so my university work is available not just via the university site, but on any of my devices with DropBox on (laptop, phone, tablet).

It's great having everything to hand...
Lost my passport? No problem, I have a copy online to help get me home! Need to produce an education certificate on demand? Want to see a copy of an old P60 or payslip from a few years back? Embarrassing my niece with videos from when she was a toddler? I can even send a link for any of my files to someone else to their email or phone instantly.

It's been brill!

RumRat

lincoln_dj wrote: »

figured this thread will get full with posts about how bad people's experiences have been, so going to add my positive experience.

It's been brill!

Don't forget the ones that will come on and say irrelevant stuff, like, 'I would never use it'.
I've never had a bad experience with any of the cloud providers I use (apart from the MS reduction, but that's sorted now and didn't really impact). I use them for the convenience of having things to hand wherever I may be.
I also have cloud access to my own NAS drive which is very handy.
I don't use the cloud as a sole backup for anything important. That sort of thing is also backed up to other hard drives.

forgotmyname

I need a decent NAS setup. Cloud storage has too many limitations.

You upload all your lifes work and then they decide to up the price or restrict the amount of data you can transfer. Mostly to stop the pirates i guess but it will filter down they they want bigger profits.

Maybe they need to advertise them as free storage for as long as we can make a profit from selling your data? Do you think they snoop at your files to see if there is anything interesting?

tony6403

I started to upload files to BT Cloud but gave up because it was unacceptably slow.

GillCMA

Hi, I’m Gill and I work at the CMA – just wanted to say many thanks for people’s contributions so far to this thread. If you have detailed info that you’d like to submit to us, there is a consumer survey form on our website. I can’t post links yet as I’m a forum newbie! But if you type ‘competition markets authority cloud’ into a search engine then our press notice, which provides all the info and links you need to submit info, appears as the first result. Thanks!

MSE update:
Here's the link folks https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/cloud-storage-consumer-law-compliance-review