On thunderbird the contacts storage is local. Do not knwo about Outlook but I believe with ALL clients it is local,, May be mirrored to the cloud but it is local.
I use Web Mail exclusively.. That way mal-ware never gets to visit my hard drive cause the host takes it out first (well most of it) with Web mail the contacts are stored on the host.. But not with client mail..
One advantage of Web Mail.. If I use this computer.. It's there
If I use the other comptuer It's there
If I use the 3rd computer, It's there
I've used a computer at Enterprise to access my E-mail to prove something to them I needed to prove.
I can use my Smart phone
My Tablet
All I have to remember is my ID and password... And every computer connectred to the web has the ability to retrive my E-mail.. And if you do not know my password.. Then you can not for it is encryped.. Then you have to go to my password manager to get it.. That would be Helen Wait.
One thing about storing DATA (not E-mail contacts) "in the cloud" I have several "Cloud" accounts, (I mentioned having 3 computers a tablet and a smart phone, each came with "Free Cloud storage" and it's raining,, as you knwo when it rains.. Clouds get smaller. One of them is history.. The rest have shrunk, the most recente went from 15 Gigs to 5.. none of this affects me cause.... I use them only for file transfer from computer to comptuer.
