OneDrive used to have a slightly different name, namely SkyDrive, Windows Live SkyDrive, and Windows Live Folders. But no matter how the names change, the essence and purpose of the program remain the same.

OneDrive is a file hosting service that is part of the Microsoft Office 365 suite. With its help, the user can store files, personal data such as passwords, recovery keys. You can synchronize the materials you store here with your PC and access them from a browser or any other device. The developers offer 5 GB of free storage space. If that’s not enough, everyone can purchase additional gigabytes separately or through subscriptions to other Microsoft services, including Office 365 and Groove Music.

OneDrive can use geo-location for photos you upload to the service. During this process, a map of the marked location is automatically displayed. In addition, users can tag people in their photos that have been uploaded through the web interface or through Windows Photo Collection.

OneDrive allows users to embed their Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents on other web pages. The resulting documents can be viewed or interacted with by anyone who visits these web pages. In addition, the developers have released a set of APIs for this program to create web services and client applications through cloud storage. It allows people to view, comment on, download, or edit files stored on OneDrive.

OneDrive is currently compatible with the following web services:

• com: Allows users to upload Office documents and photos to Outlook.com, save them, and share them with others.
• Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn: Allows users to quickly share their files on social networks with people in their contact list.
• Bing: allows customers to save their search history to a OneDrive folder.
• Windows Live Groups.

Features of the program:

• You can store up to 5 GB on OneDrive for free;
• there is a preview of images in the form of thumbnails or slides;
• If you are a Windows 8 user, you have 25 GB of memory available;
• access for each folder is determined separately: from exclusively private to public;
• A standalone version of the program has been developed for business;
• client applications are released for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows, Xbox(including Windows 8), OS X, MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan, Symbian Belle.

When we start performing certain actions on the Internet or in any program that has access to our personal data, we start to worry about security and information protection.

So, how can you protect your data when using OneDrive? Here are some additional ways:

1. Create a strong password and verify its strength if possible.
2. Add additional information, such as a phone number or email address.
3. Use two-factor verification.

4. Turn on encryption on your mobile devices.
5. Sign up for a subscription to Microsoft Office 365.
6. Scan for known threats at boot time.
7. Tracking suspicious activities.
8. Detection of ransomware and data recovery.
9. Version history for all file types
10. Password-protected links for sharing.
11. Notifications about bulk file deletion and recovery.

In addition, the following should be kept in mind. The administrators of this program are Microsoft engineers. This process takes place using the Windows PowerShell console. OneDrive and Office 365 are actively investing in systems and personnel to minimize the potential for a breach of personal information. Some of these systems and processes are described below:

• access control systems, i.e. support for a “zero permanent access policy”;
• security monitoring and automation systems. These systems alert administrators and users to attempts to illegally access customer data;
• personnel and processes.

When data is transferred to the service from users or between data centers, it is protected by the TLS protocol.

So, to summarize the above, we can identify the pros and cons of the program, which are also worth paying attention to.

Pros:

• access to files anywhere from any device;
• storage reliability – files will not disappear;
• backup. If necessary, you can recover deleted photos and documents.

Cons:

Dependence on an Internet connection, as documents will not be uploaded to the cloud without access to the Internet.