Docs.com is shutting down

Users of Docs.com have found emails from Microsoft in their inboxes today, advising that the Redmond giant will be shuttering the service in mid-December.

Docs.com is notable for having been in the centre of a row about privacy, security and data leakage at the beginning of the year. The service allows users to publicly share Office files, such as Word documents or PowerPoint presentations, as well as making them searchable on the public internet at the same time, unless users choose otherwise. In March 2017, however, it became apparent that at least some users were unaware of the public nature of the service, as researcher Kevin Beaumont found sensitive information, such as passwords, bank statements and social security numbers that was open to the public.

In the immediate aftermath, Microsoft temporarily disabled public search, although it was reinstated two days later.

A statement from Microsoft regarding the service's closure makes no mention of this kerfuffle, however, instead referring to another service it acquired as part of its purchase of LinkedIn.

"Following Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn, SlideShare has joined the Microsoft family, and represents the ideal platform for publishing your Word, PowerPoint, and PDF content with its audience of 70 million professionals, and vast content library," the company said in a notice on the Docs.com website. "For custom sharing, OneDrive offers additional tools, permission settings, and security to help share and protect your data and content. With the retirement of the Docs.com service, we hope to streamline our offerings in this space and provide you with a more cohesive experience."

Microsoft has laid out the following timetable for the closure of Docs.com:

• Immediately: no new accounts can be created
• 19 June: Office 365 administrators on business and education accounts can migrate content from Docs.com to OneDrive for business
• 1 August: Publishing and editing content no longer supported
• Now - 14 December: Users can choose to have their data automatically saved to OneDrive by logging into Docs.com
• 15 December: Docs.com is officially discontinued, with the site going offline and documents not transferred elsewhere becoming unavailable

Further information on the process, including what happens to public links, what happens if your OneDrive storage limit is less than the file volume on Docs.com and what to do if you're an Office 365 administrator can be found here.