Centralized cloud storage services such as Microsoft OneDrive have become an integral part of our lives as well as business. But their developing control over clients and untrustworthy strategic policies have gone unchecked for quite a while. It has become a common practice for market leaders to access personal data through unauthorized means to generate higher profits at the cost of the security and privacy of their users as doing so goes directly against their business model. An integrated platform sounds good but it doesn’t bring the highest security and simplicity for users. Sometimes the most popular option is not the best one and it is important to examine several alternatives to choose the service that is best for you.
How Microsoft OneDrive Fails to Meet Expectations
Microsoft OneDrive is based on a centralized architecture and inherits all the flaws that come with the system. The platform is prone to outages and failures that could severely affect the productivity of your business. However, the biggest concern is that Microsoft does not have the best history with regards to protecting the privacy of its clients. The company keeps the keys to read your files and make them available for other services. This allows Microsoft to decrypt the files of its users at any time without the user noticing it.
Another problem comes from where Microsoft is situated. Microsoft is headquartered in the US, which is a potential security problem. Laws enacted by the government such as the Patriot Act, give agencies the ability to demand access to your data. Since Microsoft is able to see your files, it is able to share them as well. They admitted in their report, in the first half of 2020 alone they received information requests from governments and courts about almost 50,000 of their customers’ accounts. Microsoft responded by providing their users’ information or content in 65% of the cases.” That is why it is suggested that you store your data on a decentralized network or a country with stronger cloud privacy laws.
These are some events that highlight how unreliable the Microsoft OneDrive Platform is:
- Microsoft OneDrive Data Leak of 2019 — Microsoft databases with around 250 million customer records dating back to 2005 were exposed on the internet.
- Microsoft OneDrive Data Leak of 2020 — More than half a million documents containing the sensitive information of its customers was leaked on the internet. The leak included personal data such as emails, letters, screenshots and more.
Why You Should Switch to StorX
StorX is a blockchain-based decentralized cloud storage built with an emphasis on security and privacy at its core. We are committed to our users having sole ownership over their data and not any third party. Unlike legacy cloud storage providers, StorX divides your files into encrypted fragments and stores multiple copies of them across individual storage nodes around the world. This means that only you hold the keys to access your files and the highly redundant system means that even if multiple nodes fail to function, you can in any case retrieve all of your data.
These are some advantages of StorX over Microsoft Dropbox:
- More Secure and Private — Every file is encrypted and distributed across a decentralized network consisting of individual storage nodes. No outsider or third party has control over your files as only you hold the decryption keys to access your data.
- Highly Redundant and Reliable — StorX stores multiple copies of your files on nodes across the globe, eliminating any single point of failure and promises you the highest uptime guaranteed.
- Cost-Effective — Storing your data on StorX costs substantially lower in contrast to centralized cloud storage services.
- 100% trustless — You will have sole ownership over your data rather than any third party.
- Open-Source — StorX believes in a transparent approach and the software utilized for the platform is completely open-source and developed by highly skilful and experienced software engineers.
StorX Drive is the next generation of cloud storage and is undeniably superior in terms of privacy and security compared to Microsoft OneDrive because of its community-based decentralized design. If you believe that a more scalable and secure cloud is the right choice for you then you can register on storx.io.
