SkyDrive called “the most restrictive cloud storage provider” due to obscenity policies

We have written a few times about SkyDrive’s very restrictive policies, which for example ban even partial nudity (does this mean not even an ankle can be showing?).  Violation of these policies, which are picked up by automated scanning of accounts, will result in a SkyDrive account being suspended or even permanently closed.

Venturebeat has polled a number of other cloud storage providers as to whether they would store legally purchased adult pornography without sharing it to others and got this result:

Box

A Box spokesperson said he wasn’t comfortable answering our questions about storing porn in Box, but he did point us to this part of the company’s terms of service:

You may not use Box in any way that violates applicable federal, state, or international law, or for any unlawful purpose.

He said as long as someone does not violate the law in any way, including the DMCA, a customer will generally have no problems from Box.

Dropbox

Dropbox also refused to answer our questions directly, but the company did direct us to its terms of service, DMCA policy, and acceptable use policy. The policy does not mention any content restrictions (such as porn or nude drawings) besides telling you not to break the law in any way.

Google Drive

Google Drive‘s policies aren’t as ridiculous as Microsoft’s, but the company does have a lot of restrictions on content. Google has rules against “publishing” (read: sharing) content that includes sexually explicit material, bullying, violence, and more.

Google would neither confirm nor deny if a user of its Drive service could upload legally obtained porn to the cloud, even if it was just for personal use. A Google spokesperson told us the following:

We work hard to curb abuses that threaten our ability to provide services like Google Drive, and we ask that everyone abide by the policies to help us achieve this goal. That said, a user’s private content is private. This means that unless a user publishes content that could be reported by another user for violation of our Abuse Program Policies, we would have no reason to investigate or take action against a particular account.

Basically, without admitting it in full, Google is saying you’re usually fine to store adult content in Drive as long as you don’t share your favorite Jenna Jameson joint with your friends.

SugarSync

Robb Henshaw, the director of corporate communications at SugarSync,said:

There are no restrictions on what can be uploaded and stored on SugarSync account for your own personal use. However, if you use SugarSync to share/distribute obscene content in a way that violates our Terms of Use, we do reserve the right to disable your account.

The conclusion was that Microsoft’s SkyDrive was the most restrictive cloud storage provider on the market, banning even profanity, which is worrying for a product so interwoven with tens of millions of phones and soon hundreds of millions of computers.

Do our readers think Microsoft need to review their policies? Let us know below.