News - Google Docs bolstered by standalone mobile apps

[HEXUS]

Also Google decides to give students their email privacy back.

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[virtuo]

Docs and Sheets are the 2 things I use most in Drive (apart from shifting small zip files between systems), so they are welcome extras. Good job on those.

[Saracen]

Well, each to his own, but personally, FAR too little, FAR too late.

Given that Google only now seems to be giving some recognition to the notion that user's privacy isn't Google's personal, private property to do with as they wish, and given ....

Its Offline Mode will automatically sync any changes made during the absence of data connection back to the cloud once data is restored.

.... then my reaction is still, no way in hell am I using Google apps, or services, for my documents. Not now, not ever.

I'm sure lots of people will, either not knowing, or not caring, about Google's propensity for minding (and mining) everybody else's business, but personally, hell will freeze over first.

[virtuo]

I don't use Google Docs for "important" documents and spreadsheets - those are still confined to the desktop and MS Office. But for quickly making notes on my tablet or pasting code snippets on a remote PC that I can grab on another instantly, it's quite handy. They are welcome to the zero personal information they can extract from that

[Saracen]

Agreed, virtuo, but my first concern would be that I'd forget what to put where. My second would be that once I have a cloud account and have installed a cloud sync app, something gets sync'd that I either didn't mean to sync, or want to sync. Or even that something, deliberately or otherwise, changes my settings.

Basically, it's a balance between privacy/security on one hand, and convenience on the other. I err a long way towards privacy/security, and the price for that is sacrificed convenience. For instance, there is NO 'personal' data on my tablet. None. No names, no phone numbers, not even so much as a single calendar appointment. And definitely no credit card or banking details. The only 'personal' information is an email address required to initialise the tablet, and that hasn't been used, not even once, since. I've never even looked to see if there's any incoming mail.

As for "important" documents, well, with me it depends on the definition. I do have lots of very personal information on computer, including bank statements, medical records and personal letters. They're encrypted, and on a machine that doesn't have an internet connection. Security, if you like, consists of air-gap firewall, and encryption. And, off-site backups (of encrypted files) in a safe.

Some documents, less personal but still important, are on a machine with a net connection (if that office switch is on). Still encrypted, of course. And some machines have nothing beyond standard firewall, AV and anti-malware measures, but little important or personal data, and a 24/7 connection, at least when they're powered up.

It's quite hard work, and at times downright inconvenient, to go even to those extents to protect privacy, and IMHO, impossible in today's world to be completely private, but you can go quite a long way towards protecting privacy with relative ease, and for me, step one is avoiding cloud storage (not just by Google) entirely, and avoiding Google services or even a Google account. Few things would delight me more than the certain knowledge that Google computers were utterly unaware that I even existed, but given the extent of modern data mining, I'm not that naive. So, all I can do, and therefore do do, is take whatever measures I can to not give them one more byte of information than is absolutely unavoidable.

An example? Buying a standalone SatNav rather than using one in a device, like a phone, that is capable of "phoning home" with my GPS co-ordinates, and moreover, buying that device because it can't phone home and report in, to Google or anyone else.

[shaithis]

Nice changes, just wish they turned the privacy setting on for everyone immediately and not just educational accounts....

[Goobley]

Hmm... I have a lot of friends who rely on Google Docs, never used it myself though. Partly because it's Google, but I find I have very little need of Office-like programs anymore (I keep libre-office for opening people's documents and throwing numbers into spreadsheets, but I produce everything else with LaTeX).

I suppose the privacy change can only be a good thing, but like you all say, it's definitely too little, too late. Luckily my gmail has only ever been used as an account to sign up for things I think will give me spam, so there's no personal info. on it.

[madmaca]

Having looked at the IOS apps, I see no changes from what you could do with Docs and Sheets within the existing Drive app (apart from the offline bit). No additional functionality above and beyond the very basic features. It's good for note taking but nothing else. It won't even allow you to edit existing Docs created in the desktop (browser) version of Docs if they contain tables. The ability to add tables is also missing from the mobile app versions. So still a way to go then...