What Happens To Your Data If You Stop Paying for Cloud Storage? (wired.com) 38
Major cloud storage providers maintain unclear policies about deleting user data after subscription cancellations, Wired reports, with deletion timelines ranging from six months to indefinite preservation.
Apple reserves the right to delete iCloud backups after 180 days of device inactivity but does not specify what happens to general file storage. Google may delete content after users exceed free storage limits for extended periods, though files remain safe for two years after cancellation.
Microsoft may delete OneDrive files after six months of non-payment, while Dropbox preserves files indefinitely without expiration dates. All providers revert users to limited free storage tiers upon cancellation with Apple and Microsoft offering 5GB, Google providing 15GB, and Dropbox allowing 2GB.
Apple reserves the right to delete iCloud backups after 180 days of device inactivity but does not specify what happens to general file storage. Google may delete content after users exceed free storage limits for extended periods, though files remain safe for two years after cancellation.
Microsoft may delete OneDrive files after six months of non-payment, while Dropbox preserves files indefinitely without expiration dates. All providers revert users to limited free storage tiers upon cancellation with Apple and Microsoft offering 5GB, Google providing 15GB, and Dropbox allowing 2GB.
Apple storage (Score:3)
Perhaps the real push for their storage service is a way to collect the data they desperately need to improve their AI.
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Apple smart enough to know that $1 a month from practically every iPhone user is well worth whatever it costs to provide that storage. Probably less than 20% use even 1/2 of that 50GB but I bet more than 70% need more than the free 5GB. If that 50GB was $3 a month how many people decide to live without it?
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... but I bet more than 70% need more than the free 5GB.
It's wager it's significantly more than that, especially if you don't turn off backups for a bunch of stuff. For example, my messages are about 4gb, and signal is over 5gb, and we're not even getting into photos, videos, music, apps, etc.. Do we even need to touch on version history?
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Signal does icloud backup now? https://signalupdateinfo.com/n... [signalupdateinfo.com]
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I got that figure from disk usage info, not from backups as I don't have iCloud backups turned on. So I'm not sure if it's supported or not.
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I think it's more of a service they willingly sell at a loss in order to keep you locked in to their ecosystem.
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I backup to my NAS which in turn gets backed up to 800GB LTO tapes which gets stored off site and rotated.
Are you from the past?
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Yeah they're like 30TB a tape now
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50GB storage for an iPhone backup is $0.99 / mo. That's pretty cheap (for Apple).
"Cheap" being the key word here: in 2025 50 GB is a good-for-nothing pittance, and one can get 64 GB USB drives for less than $5. I have no doubt that the iSheep will go for it anyway.
You stop getting it? (Score:2)
Is that a serious question? [tiktok.com]
Nothing (Score:5, Funny)
The same as if you keep paying. The provider keeps a copy to train its AI and the NSA gets a copy to know you better. You may no longer be able to access your copy, though.
Should work like normal storage facilities... (Score:5, Interesting)
... you don't pay, you are locked out. After some time, it becomes property of the storage company, and they can use it/auction like they do with physical items.
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So when you want to terminate your contract, delete your data and then upload a whole load of Youtube (or maybe even Youporn) videos to replace it.
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Something tells me that it kinda already works that way now, except that they're not waiting until you stop paying before they start auctioning your data off to AI companies and advertisers. That's what the "privacy" policy is for.
The Answer is Clear (Score:5, Funny)
The same exact thing that happens to your Pokemon cards when you die.
Moral of the story, encrypt your data (Score:5, Insightful)
And assume the hosting company is using or selling your data to train an AI.
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If only that were possible.
Sure, you can encrypt your OneDrive files, but then you can't use them either, without clunky extra steps before you try to open or save a file.
Some kinds of data, you can't encrypt at all, such as photos you take with your phone, or calendar appointments, and a lot of other metadata that you don't have direct access to.
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Sure, you can encrypt your OneDrive files, but then you can't use them either, without clunky extra steps before you try to open or save a file.
Yes, you can encrypt and easily use your files. Here is one way to do it: https://rclone.org/ [rclone.org]
Here's the docs for the encryption layer: https://rclone.org/crypt/ [rclone.org]
rclone works with a TON of providers (over 70 - https://rclone.org/#providers [rclone.org]), including OneDrive and Dropbox, as well as S3, SFTP, SMB/CIFS, etc..
You can slap the encryption layer over any of them. It's normally configured via their CLI thing, but the resulting config is pretty straightforward. Here's an example:
# ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf
[clear
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So that handles your files, but certainly not your data that is *not* saved directly as files, such as your camera roll, calendar appointments, email, etc.
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So that handles your files, but certainly not your data that is *not* saved directly as files, such as your camera roll, calendar appointments, email, etc.
Those are all files. Let's say we're talking about desktop usage, cause that's where I use rclone. In that situation, you can certainly store your photos, calendar, email, etc.. in the folder that gets encrypted and sync'd to your storage provider. For email, I'd recommend using something like maildir rather than something like mbox (IE: one file per email, versus one file containing all emails in a folder), as that will make it all work more smoothly with such a setup, but it's not rocket surgery.
In the po
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My point about emails in transit, and web browsing history, etc., is that only a small percentage of your digital life is stored on your own computer, where you can encrypt it. Every time you browse a website, the website operator logs your interaction, and likely provides it to marketers. You can't encrypt any of that. Every time you share a photo or send an email, somebody else gets a copy of it, including intermediate servers along the route. You have no guarantee that *their* systems use encryption.
If y
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I get what you're saying, but you're wrong.
Every time you share a photo or send an email, somebody else gets a copy of it, including intermediate servers along the route. You have no guarantee that *their* systems use encryption.
End-to-end encryption solves that. Use it.
Also, it still has absolutely nothing to do with your incorrect comment about cloud storage: "Sure, you can encrypt your OneDrive files, but then you can't use them either, without clunky extra steps before you try to open or save a file."
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When you send an email, you can't enforce your encryption on the recipient. In the end, it has to be unencrypted for at least part of the journey.
You also can't encrypt the huge volumes of data sent to marketing companies, every time you click a link to anyhere.
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Cryptomator will create an encrypted volume on a cloud platform and allow you to use it via a mounted drive. => https://cryptomator.org/
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Another poster has pointed me to rclone, which seems similar. And that's all great, but it can only encrypt you *files*. It can't encrypt your photos taken with your phone, or your calendar appointments, or your emails in transit, or your web browsing history. These days, only a small part of what you do on a computer, is actually managed in files on your hard drive.
They also don't guarantee your data. (Score:2)
I've had a couple VPS companies totally lose my virtual machines and unable to recover them from backups, and didn't even offer a free month. Everyone needs to look out for themselves.
Scarier thing... (Score:2)
What can they do with the data?
Your data is only as secure as the weakest point.
'The Cloud' = 'Someone Elses Computer' (Score:5, Insightful)
In Oz, there are privacy laws that are intended to protect the data, but most of our competitors openly ignore them.
In the EU, the GDPR is intended to protect the data, but once again, no one is policing it.
I don't know what the situation is in the US, but given the conduct of the 4 majors in AI development, I expect that its pretty much nothing.
Possession is nine tenths of the law, and once you give up possession of your data to someone else, you get what you get.
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Cloud vendors don’t get to do whatever they like with unpaid-for data. They delete it. Because using it for training would be illegal, unethical, and commercially suicidal. This is one of those takes that sounds insightful to people who don’t know the law—but it's just warmed-over cynicism masquerading as truth.
Its easy to answer when you realise that the Cloud is just someone else's computer.
Righhhhhhht. And renting an apartment is living in someone else’s building, but that doesn’t mean the landlord can sell your furniture when you miss rent. Hosting != ow
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Then, insulting in your second point. You're starting to look like a troll here.
More insults in your third point. Getting a real troll vibe from you now.
And then we get into the ad hominem. Definite troll.
Shame really. You might have had some good points, but your tone trashed it. Next time, get ChatGPT to sanitise your responses before posting.
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We see a fair number of them surfacing in the wild, and quite often in major brand providers. These are either undeclared breaches, or something worse.
We're not about to start blowing whistles on specific cases. We're
I DON"T put vital stuff on iCloud...... (Score:2)
no, unpaid cloud storage isn't going to train LLMs (Score:2)
The TOS rules. Cloud providers are legally barred from using customer data for AI training unless you explicitly consent—and stopping payment doesn’t magically revoke copyright, IP rights, or privacy protections. Hosting != owning. The providers don’t get a lien just because you missed a bill. Apple, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud all state in black-and-white that they do not access or train on customer content unless you opt in. And even if they wanted to, training on orphaned data would