SPY GAMES: Google Drive terms of service 'let US authorities raid your cloud'

Herald Sun ^ | 30 April, 2012 | Claire Connelly

[brityank]

SPY GAMES: Google Drive terms of service 'let US authorities raid your cloud'

By Claire Connelly, Technology Reporter | April 30, 2012 10:53AM

• Terms of service "destroy expectation of privacy"
• US authorities could view cloud files without warrant
• Australian law is "all but irrelevant"

THE terms of service of Google's new cloud service "Drive" could allow US law enforcement agencies to access your data, without your knowledge and without the need for a warrant.

Or so says the inventor of one of the first cloud computing services, TrendMicro cloud evangelist, David Asprey.

Mr Asprey told news.com.au that the terms of use of Google Drive “destroys any expectation of privacy because you license your data to a third party”.

“You give Google full right to do whatever they want to do with your data and of course one of those things is to give your information to law enforcement without a subpoena,” Mr Asprey said.

By signing up to Google Drive, users give the tech giant a global license to “use, host, store, reproduce, modify or create derivative works and to publish, publicly perform and distribute that content.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mr Heitman said that Google’s privacy policy, which was updated last month, no longer said that it would only hand over court documents without a court order or a warrant.

[brityank]

Not only is Australian Law irrelevant, so is is US and any other country that they operate in.

[SoConPubbie]

Why anyone would expect any reasonable levels of privacy for data in a “Cloud” is beyond me, especially from the eyes of anybody, or any government not rooted in Individual liberaties and that would include both the Obama Administration and a hypothetical Romney Administration.

[RitchieAprile]

it would include any administration. thinking that data
anywhere are safe from discovery, especially by Fed agencies such as DEA or FBI is naive to say the least.

[Lancey Howard]

Somebody here at FR recommended this service a few months ago, and I think it is one of the coolest things I ever saw. Quick and easy to download, and it blocks everything, INCLUDING all Google tracking, with no effect on computer performance.

http://abine.com/

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

That's why I'll ALWAYS maintain my data on my own external drive with backup.

I well remember when who was it? Google? bought geocities and said that everything on geocities belonged to THEM from that point onward.

I recently did open a MS Skydrive cloud account, but It'll hold nothing sensitive on it. Bet on it!

[Gunslingr3]

Not to burst your bubble, but did you read the privacy policy?

Abine, Inc. except as required by law:

Abine will not track, store or transmit to any server or third party, information regarding users' behavioral data (to include web browsing activity).

If the government (read about the UK government's IMP program) requires the tracking of this info for datamining, you can be sure that it will be logged, stored, and mined as the government dictates.

Unless you're encrypting your entire hard drive, and have your email contacts conversant in encrypting/decrypting email attachments, your communications and data are already being tracked and can be accessed.

4th amendment and 9th amendment be damned, you are being tracked, because you might be a terrorist (or pedophile, or whatever villain de jure is selling best at the moment).

[brityank]

Thanks Lancey. That looks like a similar add-on I have on my Firefox - Ghostery; shows all of the trackers and disables them, allowing you to permit the ones you want. “Collusion” is another add-on that shows who is cross-connected - abine.com does link to Google, as does FR.

Pretty sad when you get to the realization that your government is a bigger crook than the ones outside it.

[dfwgator]

How does that compare with Dropbox.....I’ve been using Dropbox for awhile, and see no reason to switch.

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

Yup. WHen you use a computer, you have to run on the basic assumption that NOTHING is private. It's all stored in audit logs and other places on any computer you access!

Despite all of the fancy 'privacy policies' there is NO privacy on the internet. NONE AT ALL!

[brityank]

Dunno. I don’t use either.

[An.American.Expatriate]

"Business records (the records of a business you voluntarily contract with) have always been discoverable by subpoena in both civil and criminal investigations. You can challenge such through various pleadings but the presumption has always been, absent some sort of agreement otherwise, that they're ordinary records and belong to the party that keeps them."

From a related topic here:
In The "Duh" Department (Online Privacy)

In other words, the is no expection of privacy when dealing with any online service - unless otherwise contractually specified!

[submarinerswife]

Google and Obama are BFF’s. They donate boat loads of cash and Obama uses them for breaching privacy laws.

[PghBaldy]

Anyone remember the (US) issue with telecom providers helping the Bush Admin, and liberals here in the US getting up in arms about it? Or warrantless searches under Bush? Liberals are nothing but the big, fat hypocrites they call conservatives.

[tomkat]

Google goes Facebook

[Cato in PA]

The lesson here is that if you want to use cloud storage, roll your own. It’s cheap and easy. I use Tonido. You could also use PogoPlug or another type of NAS.

It never ceases to amaze me how virtually everybody who uses popular web services is clueless about the privacy risks. Nobody understands that the government can raid your cloud storage. Nobody understands that Facebook OWNS content you post. It’s downright depressing!

[kevkrom]

From a privacy standpoint, I’m less concerned with them giving data to law enforcement (they can be forced to do so via subpoena anyway) and more concerned with the fact that the terms grant them the right to create derivative works from your data.