Posted on 11/01/2017 8:53:29 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Several users of Google's online word processing service, Google Docs, were surprised on Tuesday when their documents were blocked for violating its policies.
While Google quickly restored them, blaming a botched update that mistakenly locked users out of the documents, the episode revealed what many people did not realise - Google is monitoring the ostensibly private files stored in Docs.
Google Drive's terms of service prohibit spam, violent or hate speech, pornography, the spread of confidential information and so on. They apply only to files that are shared, so those kept to yourself are presumably exempt.
A Google spokesman said that Docs and other files in Google Drive are policed by an algorithm that looks out for abuse of its policies, and automatically blocks files if they are deemed to violate them. Unlike some systems, which escalate a suspected issue to a moderator, there is no human review involved.
The spokesman said that the main reason its algorithm reads files is to prevent computer viruses or spam spreading. It is unclear if Google's algorithm is used to check for pornography or other abuse of its policies, or if the policy applies equally to work and personal accounts.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Google is evil.
Do not use them.
They rule over the peons for your own good—nothing to see here. :-)
Policy? I’m adopting a no google policy.
And, it would be nice it they reduced the 30-day emptying of my spam folder down to one day.
First it’s the service provider. Then the government realizes it can poke around in your stuff. Nothing is private.
ANY data that is collected is something the government can and will look at, legally or not.
I have never used their document service. Thankfully.
It’s not only not private, it’s forever. Think you deleted it? Guess again. Somebody somewhere will dig it up if you tick off the wrong person or publicly display incorrect thoughts.
All of this “cloud” nonsense is crazy! People are putting their most important things online where these corporations can data mine the information, sell information about you, sell your secrets to other corporations, and then give all the info to the NSA on the basis of blanket National Security Letters.
If you put it online you need to realize that you just shared it. Period.
How did you manage to post something that doesn’t relate to another post?
Trying to get context on this post I looked at the referring post and found nothing.
Is that an undocumented feature?!
And who is Zoho, and why wont they do the same crap Google does to their “customers” in the end, once you hand over everything you have to them?
I didn’t.
Why does anyone use the cloud? Don’t you have a hard drive? A thumb drive? What is the point?
One of the main reasons is the average person is irresponsible with their data. They don't backup. They don't safeguard the data. Thumb drives get lost or stolen. Hard drives crash.
With a cloud solution, data is available on any device once you are authenticated. The cloud is the main reason you can log into your email account from any device in the world and have access to the same emails. The cloud is the main reason your data follows you wherever you go. And if you work for a corporation (that requires cloud storage), they can immediately eliminate your access to their data should your employment be terminated.
There are a lot of other reasons but bottom line is that the cloud is here to stay. Ironically, the computer industry started out with "dumb terminals" interacting with a mainframe and now it's coming full circle.
I’ve always wondered if Google is just a front corporation for US intelligence. Makes perfect sense....
Giving up any security for your data outweighs all other factors, including convenience, as far as I am concerned.
Corporations using Google Docs forfeit any intellectual property rights.
Many corporations use Google Docs. Stupidly.
Their “not hate speech” rules is how Dr. Jordan Peterson found both his YouTube channel demonetized AND Google mail and Google documents blocked for a time.
Does Microsoft do the same with Outlook.com and Office 365?
Because they can and you make them available.
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