Western Digital wants you to rent hard drives for storing your photos

Cloud storage has gained immense popularity among the users in the past couple of years. Now, Western Digital has found another unique way of providing the additional storage space that they need to store their data such as photos, videos and documents.

The company has launched a new service called ‘Monthly Subscription Program’ where it rents hard disk (yes, you heard it right!) based on their requirements. What happens is that when users avail a particular plan, Wester Digital sends them a hard disk drive on which they can store their data until the end of their service plan. Once the plan ends, users can either renew the contract or end it. They will have to return the hard disk to the company if they choose to end the contract.

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Users can rent 1TB of storage space for $5.99 per month ( ₹438 approximately), 4TB of storage space for $9.99 ( ₹731 approximately) and 8TB of storage space for $17.99 ( ₹1,316 approximately). Alternatively, users can also purchase these hard drives for $99.99 ( ₹7,312 approximately), $179.99 ( ₹13,162 approximately) or $279.99 ( ₹20,475 approximately) respectively.

Now, the interesting bit. Renting this storage space isn’t as easy as purchasing additional storage space on iCloud or buying an external hard disk. Western Digital will evaluate your credit history -- like the way they do before approving your loan -- before providing you with its service. This means that it can also deny you its service!

“We may evaluate your credit history before providing you the Service. As such, we may obtain a credit report from a consumer reporting agency (i.e., credit bureau) to determine your creditworthiness. If you fail to pay your bill on time and in full, we may submit negative information to a consumer reporting agency, which will negatively impact your credit report,” the company wrote in its terms of use.

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That’s not it. The company also says that it will make live performance recordings of users’ data “without the consent”. “Live performance recordings made without the consent of all performers,” the company added. It’s clear that Western Digital is trying to breakthrough in the cloud storage space. But a price as high as the company is charging coupled with its controversial policy may not necessarily be the best way to go about it.