News - Google Drive privacy concerns

[HEXUS]

Are you sharing your intellectual property?

Read more.

[cheesemp]

Sounds like the lawyers got to write the agreement without getting it checked out by someone with a half a brain. Once a bit of an uproar starts I expect someone high up in Google will get this stupid clause removed.

[Noxvayl]

I expect Googles terms to be modified at some point thanks to the outrage over their unified document for all their services. Google Drive's T&Cs do seem extremely invasive, I don't see why they need them worded in such a broad manner.

[crossy]

I don't like the look of those GD T&C's at all - so for that reason I won't be looking at this service (despite Play wanting me to install the GD client on my phone).

That said, if you were attracted by the pricing, then I'm guessing it'd be pretty easy to just create an encrypted container in GD with TrueCrypt and use that to store your files. Of course, if Google then managed to break the encryption (unlikely) then they'd be guilty of hacking and you could get 'em prosecuted.

[aidanjt]

As I said, best running your OwnCloud.

[Brewster0101]

As I said, best running your OwnCloud.

+1, simple NAS box with hard drive is quick cheap to buy and then you have alot more space and no issues with terms and conditions, or privacy issues.

[miniyazz]

I don't like the look of those GD T&C's at all - so for that reason I won't be looking at this service (despite Play wanting me to install the GD client on my phone).

That said, if you were attracted by the pricing, then I'm guessing it'd be pretty easy to just create an encrypted container in GD with TrueCrypt and use that to store your files. Of course, if Google then managed to break the encryption (unlikely) then they'd be guilty of hacking and you could get 'em prosecuted.

No law against hacking 'your own' files

[scaryjim]

Hmmm, so what Google are saying is that if you take advantage of 5GB of free cloud storage (or indeed of any service provided by Google), they reserve the right to use anything you submit to them to help promote or develop their services.

Be interesting to know how that interacted with things like sharing settings in Google+. I suspect that there are other parts of the T&Cs (and privacy policy) that remove that right in most cases, and this is a bit of a storm in a teacup. I await Google's response...

[shaithis]

This is the first time I've been unhappy with google and tbh, I am really unhappy with them.

Looks like skydrive will have to be my main repository until google change these T&Cs.....which are quite frankly, ridiculous.

[Saracen]

As I said, best running your OwnCloud.

That, more or less, except that I personally don't have a need for a cloud of any type, regardless of who owns/controls it.

Sounds like the lawyers got to write the agreement without getting it checked out by someone with a half a brain. Once a bit of an uproar starts I expect someone high up in Google will get this stupid clause removed.

Personally, I don't accept that this is just a naive mistake by Google. If it is, it is a matter of utter, rank incompetence on their part, seeing as they got themselves in exactly this kind of pickle over an almost identical attempt at a rights grab early in the life of Chrome. It does, therefore, strike me as illustrative of Google's corporate ethos, which is exactly why there are no circumstances under which I will trust them, now or ever, with my personal data.

[scaryjim]

Originally intended to post this as an edit to my previous comment, but forgot to his save and went for lunch

... didn't even have to go as far as the privacy policy.

The sentence before the section quoted in the article:

You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

And the next but one sentence after your quote (emphasis mine):

Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.

So if you choose to restrict access to your content, Google doesn't get to use it.

[jimbouk]

Isn't this very similar to the original Chrome T&Cs that got very quickly flamed and removed?

I still don't get everyone obsession with putting things in the 'Cloud', just rent a normal server and stick your stuff there if you need external space...

[aidanjt]

I still don't get everyone obsession with putting things in the 'Cloud', just rent a normal server and stick your stuff there if you need external space...

That's all 'the cloud' is anyway, just hyped up beyond all reason.

[shaithis]

+1, simple NAS box with hard drive is quick cheap to buy and then you have alot more space and no issues with terms and conditions, or privacy issues.

Apart from the fact it negates why many people use cloud storage. You want your backup to be off-site.

[TheAnimus]

I must admit because google appear to do this with every service, it flags the

"Oh no, guys, seriously we're not evil, thanks for pointing out how evil we're being, we'll fix this right away" type of land grab. They are probably getting away with it on plenty of their services.

[DannyM]

If I am not mistaken a while back dropbox had something in their T&Cs that basically allowed them to access your files at anytime without your permission. It's not just Google playing with fire.