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Google Data Storage

Google Drive Could Soon Start Locking Your Files (techradar.com) 76

Posted by BeauHD from the updated-policies dept.
Google has announced a new policy for cloud storage service Drive, which will soon begin to restrict access to files deemed to be in violation of the company's policies. TechRadar reports: As explained in a new blog post, Google will take active steps to identify files hosted on its platform that are in breach of either its Terms of Service or abuse program policies. These files will be flagged to their owner and restricted automatically, which means they can no longer be shared with other people, and access will be withdrawn from everyone but the owner. "This will help ensure owners of Google Drive items are fully informed about the status of their content, while also helping to ensure users are protected from abusive content," the company explained.

According to Google, the motive behind the policy change is to shield against the abuse of its services. This broad catchall encompasses cybercriminal activity (like malware hosting, phishing etc.), hate speech, and content that might endanger children, but also sexually explicit material. "We need to curb abuses that threaten our ability to provide these services, and we ask that everyone abide by [our policies] to help us achieve this goal," states Google in its policy document. "After we are notified of a potential policy violation, we may review the content and take action, including restricting access to the content, removing the content, and limiting or terminating a user's access to Google products." Google goes on to say that it may make "exceptions based on artistic, educational, documentary or scientific considerations." As noted by TechRadar, "there is a system to request a review of a decision if someone feels a file has been restricted unfairly, but it's unclear how the process will be handled on Google's end and how long it might take."
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Google Drive Could Soon Start Locking Your Files More

Google Drive Could Soon Start Locking Your Files

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  • This is why (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @06:26PM (#62092385)

    I don't use cloud services. The other is at the end of the day if they ever go down, or make a mistake your files are gone (which has only happened to a few so far across all could services).

    • I use cloud services, but never rely upon them. If someone wants to give me a decent beer, I'll happily accept. But I don't rely upon others to supply my beer needs. (Important things I want internet accessible are stored on OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox, along with on at least two local backup hard drives, and probably also on my NASs. -- call me data paranoid, but that doesn't stop me using cloud services, merely stops me being dependent on them -- be a pain if they stop, but not a disaster.)

      • Right. If it makes things convenient - sharing a file between platforms - I'll use it. As a primary, or "mission critical" source? Heck no.

        Often times, due to my house internet speed (which is embarrassingly slow), I'll share an image taken on my iPhone to iCloud, and then download it to my desktop as needed. It's just easier that way.

    • Re: This is why (Score:4, Insightful)

      by niftydude ( 1745144 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @07:44PM (#62092603)
      I roll my own: https://nextcloud.com/ [nextcloud.com]

      Raspberry pi, whatever hard drive you want, dynamic dns of some sort, and let's encrypt for ssl.

      I also use rsync for weekly backups. Only time I've been down in the last 5 years was when I lost power to my house, but even then everything came back up perfectly, and I wasn't exactly worrying about file syncing while my home's power was out.

      • I too use Nextcloud (and before that Owncloud). However, I have it on a hosting service along with my website. Other things being equal, I prefer not to have any incoming exposed ports on my home LAN. For "sensitive" documents, I encrypt locally and only have the encrypted files on Nextcloud on the hosting service. It is very useful to have stuff stored on the cloud.

        And, I too am a bit over the top with regard to backups. Two NAS for backup. One in the house and one in the shed/garden room at the end

    • The day Dropbox broke all my links a few years back that was it for me. Never again will I rely on a "cloud" based service. I run a few NAS' in the basement and the garage backing each other up.

      • I run a few NAS' in the basement and the garage backing each other up.

        That wouldn't help if your house catches fire or is destroyed by a tornado. OK, if this happens you'll have other stuff to worry about than 10 year old pictures of your cat. However, if your files contain more important things, having another backup somewhere in the cloud would be a good idea.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Excelcia ( 906188 )

      The best friend you could have is syncthing [syncthing.net]. It just works. There is a network of volunteer relay servers out there so it also works if you are behind a firewall. And if you are like me and don't want to rely on any relay infrastructure either, then you can put it together with a cheap 8TB USB drive and a router running something like FreshTomato [freshtomato.org] or DD-WRT [dd-wrt.com]. It's encrypted. The data is safe. And its MINE.

      When Google decides for any reason they don't want to let you log in, and this happened to me with

    • Re: This is why (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ngb25 ( 7900750 )
      You think u donâ(TM)t. But u definitely do. Turn off the internet to your phone, laptop, pc or tablet. Then u will realise how much u use them.

      • I'm talking about storage in the cloud, and I use exactly zero cloud services, if I need to transfer files I use email or USB drives

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I use cloud services. The key is not to ever be reliant on them, and don't trust them at all.

      For example, I use Google Cloud for some files, but I have a task that backs it up every night so I have a local copy of everything. Every month I use Google Takeout to get a complete copy of everything. While I use Gmail, I have Thunderbird running on a server to keep a complete local copy and email is via my domain so can be redirected instantly. I never use the Gmail address.

      I also use Jottacloud, but only for ba

  • unsurprised. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17, 2021 @06:26PM (#62092387)
    So I guess that puts to rest claims that "google doesn't look at your files" and that we were all just paranoid.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They don't. They look for links posted on the public internet, on sites where people post copyright infringing material. They also do automated virus scans. I assume you don't include things like virus scans or their apps opening files so you can edit them, you mean looking at them so they can target ads/mind control rays.

  • C'mon, Say it with me. . . (Score:5, Insightful)

    by darth_borehd ( 644166 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @06:30PM (#62092395)

    "There is no cloud, it's just somebody else's computer."

  • I have copywritten material in my gdrive which (Score:5, Insightful)

    by waspleg ( 316038 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @06:31PM (#62092401) Journal

    I fucking paid for. What are they doing to do about that? Thinking mostly about pdfs of books, I don't use "the cloud" much.

  • Don't use the cloud for sensitive information (Score:4, Insightful)

    by joe_frisch ( 1366229 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @06:44PM (#62092447)
    Or at least the files need to be encrypted by a key that you control. Not only is that data on the cloud server, but also on all the ISPs between your source and that server.

    It would be nice cloud storage were secure, but I've never expected it to be. Any sensitive material I have is stored and backed up locally, encrypted on hardware I control. Of course those local computers can be compromised as well, but at least that will take some effort.

  • they've been doing worse than that (Score:3)

    by zephvark ( 1812804 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @06:55PM (#62092465)

    If you have any viruses uploaded to your Google Drive, be assured that Google will refuse to let you download them. Let's hope you weren't a virus researcher, eh? Let's hope that Google didn't identify a virus in a perfectly good file, at that.

    In short, they've been scanning your files all along. Does this come as a surprise?

    • "They've been scanning your files al along" - Eh? Naturally, writing your files to their server requires a read operation. Anyone who thought that Google wasn't reading their Drive files doesn't know how computers work...

      • "They've been scanning your files al along" - Eh? Naturally, writing your files to their server requires a read operation. Anyone who thought that Google wasn't reading their Drive files doesn't know how computers work...

        Or just meant "reading and analysing" when saying "reading", and assumed at least a tiny shred of intelligence by the reader, so they don't have to spell everything out explicitly to the last bit. An assumption you apparently fail.

  • The Supreme Court, years ago, said... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RussellTheMuscle ( 2783037 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @06:56PM (#62092469)
    you have no reasonable expectation of privacy for any file that you place on someone else's computer.
    • Unless it's encrypted. Oh and BTW if you change one bit in a file using a hex editor, like a T becomes a U, then it's signature (cyclical redundancy check) (CRC) which Google uses to check files, fails. I have posted many files which were flagged as copyright infringements back to Google drive after changing one byte and they passed no problem.
      • Which I've wondered about. Let's say you take a song - Disillusioned, by A Perfect Circle - and pad a second of silence on the end. The CRC should be different. Would Google know that I'm storing a copyrighted work in my hypothetical Google Drive?

  • Well, let's hope (Score:4, Insightful)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @07:09PM (#62092503)

    Given they're going to do this, let's at least hope they'll do a better job with their appeals process than they do on YouTube.

  • This is going to hurt (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    This is going to put a lot of people using android and chromebooks at risk. It's also a great way to get one over on someone: Just dump some forbidden files on their device, it'll get backed up to google drive, google will see it, and poof, no more access to your google drive-linked device.

    Scanning cloud storage for badness is one of those "because we can" thing that forgets about ethics. This is about as ethical as a priest acting on your confessions or your doctor informing the police he's just treated y

  • Policing speech on your own cloud drive? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The concept of "hate speech" is ever fluid. I've even heard Jordan Peterson called hate speech by some. The idea that Google may police thoughts in what should be a neutral service is alarming. We're completely losing the concept of privacy and ownership. It's a danger to all of us as free individuals.

  • ...while only making life difficult for honest users whose files are flagged as false positives. All you have to do is drop an offending file into a password protected archive.

    But what if they restrict the sharing of encrypted archives? Well, then you just find a file format they don't recognize. And thus an arms race begins. The only way to stop this completely would be for Google to dissalow all files that are not in a list of recognized formats, and that would present FAR too big an inconvenience for

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

      That's practically what they do with Gmail already, I've given up on using gmail for sending files as they insist on spying on everything, privacy and security is not allowed.

  • Google is looking at your private stuff (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sdinfoserv ( 1793266 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @08:05PM (#62092647)
    So, googie drive, which is suppose to be for storing/ archiving / backing up your private data, is going to lock things based on content. the mechanisms of surveillance are in place..

  • Sounds like most of you didn't RTFA (surprise!) (Score:3, Informative)

    by caveat ( 26803 ) on Friday December 17, 2021 @08:08PM (#62092657)

    Per the Google blog itself [googleblog.com], the owner of the "offending" material will not lose access to it, they won't lose access to their account, their devices won't be shut down...they simply won't be able to share it in any way shape or form, basically just setting it to fully private:

    When a Google Drive file is identified as violating Google's Terms of Service or program policies, it may be restricted. When it’s restricted, you may see a flag next to the filename, you won’t be able to share it, and your file will no longer be publicly accessible, even to people who have the link.
    Now, the owner of the item in Google Drive will receive an email notifying them of the action taken, and alerting them of how to request a review of the restriction if they think it is a mistake. For items in shared drives, the shared drive manager will receive the notification.

    Now, Google scanning your files for stuff they deem "in violation" is a different discussion and one that's absolutely worth having, but y'all should probably actually Read The Fucking Article before mindlessly screeching "GoOgLe iZ GuNnA sUsPeNd yOu iF yOu ShArE a StEfAn MoLyNeUx ViDeO!"

  • Use a hex editor. Change one bit. Different file. They CRC the files.
    I've been gaming Google and uploading "copyright infringement" for ages now. Fuck off!

    • Re:OFFS (Score:4, Insightful)

      by SuricouRaven ( 1897204 ) on Saturday December 18, 2021 @05:15AM (#62093477)

      There are ways around that too. Perceptual hashing, chunk hashing. It's just a matter of how much effort Google wants to devote to the effort - engineer time, computing resources and human review time.

      Google's motivation isn't hard to guess: They want to put on a good show of voluntarily helping with law enforcement, because otherwise politicians around the world will start mandating it.

  • Time to move to MEGA (Score:3)

    by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <slashdot@nOSpam.keirstead.org> on Friday December 17, 2021 @09:15PM (#62092815)

    Google can only pull this stuff off because they can read the files. MEGA does not have access to the files if they wanted to, as they are encrypted end to end.

    • That's what they claim. I use MEGA and it's fine, but if you use their software (the website or the app), you don't have any proof that they don't have your private keys. A safe method would be to separate encryption from file upload, in which case Google drive would work equally well, but this increases usage complexity. Then there is the topic of sharing encrypted file for which the server doesn't have the key, a complex subject I believe.

  • When there was a crackdown on torrents and mega like download sites, people used to host content on Gmail / Drive for public sharing (whatever it was called back in the day). I am pretty sure there are now some quota restrictions on mass access. Did not hear about this for years anyway.

    But it looks like this is a step to stop even "among friends" sharing, or small groups that would use Discord or other groups to swap link among themselves.

    At one end, yes it is Google's bandwidth, at the other end, it is rea

  • Back it up to your computer? (Score:3)

    by KT0100101101010100 ( 7179190 ) on Saturday December 18, 2021 @03:44AM (#62093357)

    Granted, I use Google Drive extensively because it is convenient and it has one of the best User Experiences out there. In particular, much better than Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive.

    Probably the biggest risk is for some algorithm or bug to misidentify your files as 'in violation'. Good luck then waiting for a human review or an exception, especially if you're using it for free.

    I was trying to find a way to periodically 'back up' my Google Drive contents (= download it). Any ideas are very welcome. Installing the GDrive app and synchronising with your computer does *not* work, because this only stores symlinks to the online content.

    As per GDPR, internet services are obliged to give you a dump of all your data upon request, at any time. I would assume this also applies to Google Drive?

  • If you work in education &/or instructional design, it often means using copyright materials under fair use (copyright law). Are Gooogle going to unleash something like their YouTube copyright algoriths thereby preventing fair use? What would this mean for Google Classroom, which is basically Google Docs & Drive with some presets & adapted GUIs? If so, this'll be a boon for the EdTech industry as schools, colleges, & universities migrate en-masse to their platforms.

  • Time to encrypt the files before uploading.

    • I was just about to post exactly the same comment. You should never, ever upload anything to the cloud in plain text.
  • I'll never use the cloud.
  • ...customer service support hell. Have we locked your files by mistake? That's too bad because it's going to be a looong time before we get around to dealing with your complaint. BTW, you'll have to be inhumanly patient & persistent throughout the long, drawn out, frustrating process. Good luck! You'll need it. Have a nice day!

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