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The New Coffee Room

  1. TNCR
  2. General Discussion
  3. Google: "You can't share that on 'Google Drive.'"

Google: "You can't share that on 'Google Drive.'"

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  • George KG Offline
    George KG Offline
    George K
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    https://www.techradar.com/news/google-drive-could-soon-start-locking-your-personal-files

    Remember, it's not "The Cloud." It's just someone else's computer.

    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.

    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owner and restricted automatically, which means they can no longer be shared with other people, and access will be withdrawn from everyone but the owner.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.

    "Hate speech."

    Nice.

    Don't be evil.

    "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

    The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

    1 Reply Last reply
    • JollyJ Offline
      JollyJ Offline
      Jolly
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      Trust bust needed.

      “Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”

      Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton

      1 Reply Last reply
      • AxtremusA Offline
        AxtremusA Offline
        Axtremus
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        Google’s end-user agreement already states that they will prohibit certain material. See https://www.google.com/drive/terms-of-service/ . This is just adding enforcement mechanism.

        Yeah, “the Cloud” is in many ways “other people’s computers.”

        If you really want to share something from your own computer, set it up as a web or file server. The Apache web server software is free, so is many FTP server software.

        1 Reply Last reply
        • George KG Offline
          George KG Offline
          George K
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

          The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

          LuFins DadL 1 Reply Last reply
          • George KG George K

            LuFins DadL Offline
            LuFins DadL Offline
            LuFins Dad
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            @george-k said in Google: "You can't share that on 'Google Drive.'":

            Did you notice at the bottom where it states that a review can not be requested?

            The Brad

            George KG 1 Reply Last reply
            • LuFins DadL LuFins Dad

              @george-k said in Google: "You can't share that on 'Google Drive.'":

              Did you notice at the bottom where it states that a review can not be requested?

              George KG Offline
              George KG Offline
              George K
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              @lufins-dad said in Google: "You can't share that on 'Google Drive.'":

              Did you notice at the bottom where it states that a review can not be requested?

              Sure did.

              "Someone else's computer" because shut up.

              "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

              The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

              1 Reply Last reply
              • MikM Offline
                MikM Offline
                Mik
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                This is why I do not use most Google products. I have a gmail but I don't use it much and I sure as hell don't use their cloud or applications. Maps is still the best out there.

                “I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill

                George KG AxtremusA 2 Replies Last reply
                • MikM Mik

                  This is why I do not use most Google products. I have a gmail but I don't use it much and I sure as hell don't use their cloud or applications. Maps is still the best out there.

                  George KG Offline
                  George KG Offline
                  George K
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  @mik said in Google: "You can't share that on 'Google Drive.'":

                  This is why I do not use most Google products. I have a gmail but I don't use it much and I sure as hell don't use their cloud or applications. Maps is still the best out there.

                  Same here. For search, it's DuckDuckGo. I have a gmail as well, and never use it. I do use their maps on my phone.

                  By the way, I just uploaded a file to my google drive identical to the one referenced in the OP. Let's see what happens.

                  "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                  The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                  AxtremusA 1 Reply Last reply
                  • George KG George K

                    @mik said in Google: "You can't share that on 'Google Drive.'":

                    This is why I do not use most Google products. I have a gmail but I don't use it much and I sure as hell don't use their cloud or applications. Maps is still the best out there.

                    Same here. For search, it's DuckDuckGo. I have a gmail as well, and never use it. I do use their maps on my phone.

                    By the way, I just uploaded a file to my google drive identical to the one referenced in the OP. Let's see what happens.

                    AxtremusA Offline
                    AxtremusA Offline
                    Axtremus
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    @george-k said in Google: "You can't share that on 'Google Drive.'":

                    By the way, I just uploaded a file to my google drive identical to the one referenced in the OP. Let's see what happens.

                    Just “uploading” is not quite the same as “sharing”. Try to make that file publicly accessible to every one or explicitly share with a specific organization or group of people to see what happens.

                    George KG 1 Reply Last reply
                    • MikM Mik

                      This is why I do not use most Google products. I have a gmail but I don't use it much and I sure as hell don't use their cloud or applications. Maps is still the best out there.

                      AxtremusA Offline
                      AxtremusA Offline
                      Axtremus
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      @mik said in Google: "You can't share that on 'Google Drive.'":

                      This is why I do not use most Google products. I have a gmail but I don't use it much and I sure as hell don't use their cloud or applications. Maps is still the best out there.

                      Most websites you visit uses Google’s API and various Google analytics services under the hood without you knowing. Not that they are trying to hide it, just that there are so many dependencies for modern websites (so it’s impractical to disclose them all) and limited regulatory requirement to disclose (often limited to personally identifiable information), so most of the dependencies don’t get disclosed. For an experiment, if you configure your home router to block everything to/from “google.com”, chances are very good that you will find an overwhelming majority of websites and web-based services broken in some ways.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      • MikM Offline
                        MikM Offline
                        Mik
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        You make my point for me.

                        There are many things I cannot control. I will do what I can.

                        “I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        • AxtremusA Axtremus

                          @george-k said in Google: "You can't share that on 'Google Drive.'":

                          By the way, I just uploaded a file to my google drive identical to the one referenced in the OP. Let's see what happens.

                          Just “uploading” is not quite the same as “sharing”. Try to make that file publicly accessible to every one or explicitly share with a specific organization or group of people to see what happens.

                          George KG Offline
                          George KG Offline
                          George K
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          @axtremus said in Google: "You can't share that on 'Google Drive.'":

                          Just “uploading” is not quite the same as “sharing”. Try to make that file publicly accessible to every one or explicitly share with a specific organization or group of people to see what happens.

                          Done.

                          "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                          The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          • CopperC Offline
                            CopperC Offline
                            Copper
                            wrote on last edited by Copper
                            #13

                            1

                            A single line with just a 1 and nothing else is not allowed as a post here either.

                            Nor should it be

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            • George KG Offline
                              George KG Offline
                              George K
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              Update and more: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-drive-flags-macos-ds-store-files-for-copyright-violation/

                              Google Drive was seen flagging '.DS_Store' files generated by macOS file systems as a violation of its copyright infringement policy.

                              '.DS_Store' is a metadata file commonly seen by Apple users when they transfer their folders and archives from a macOS to a non-Apple operating system, like Windows.

                              Is '.DS_Store' copyrighted?

                              A user reported seeing a ".DS_Store" file on their Google Drive being flagged for violating Google's 'Copyright Infringement' policy.

                              And, it seems this isn't the first time it's happened either. A similar issue was experienced by some last month, specifically with '.DS_Store' files [1, 2].

                              Apple users often see mysterious '.DS_Store' appear when they copy ZIP files and folders from their macOS devices to another operating system, such as Windows.

                              '.DS_Store' files are automatically generated by macOS' Finder application to store custom attributes and metadata such as icon information and background image location. This information helps Finder render the layout as per the user's preferences.

                              On macOS systems, .DS_Store files remain typically hidden within Finder. In fact, the file is analogous to the hidden desktop.ini and thumbs.db files seen occasionally by Windows users (if their Explorer settings permit showing 'hidden' files).

                              However, when uploading archives and folders to a third-party cloud service, such as Google Drive or Dropbox, the storage provider's file manager may regardless show ".DS_Store," "desktop.ini," and other such files, otherwise obscured on a user's personal computer.

                              It isn't known yet what causes this behavior, and BleepingComputer has been unable to reproduce the issue at the time of writing.

                              One plausible assumption we had was, Google relies on checksums to keep track of copyrighted content, and a possible hash-collision between copyrighted files and benign files sharing the same hash can trigger false violations.

                              Last month, Google Drive users were left baffled on seeing their nearly empty files being erroneously flagged for violating the company's copyright infringement policy.

                              These text files contained nothing other than numbers like 0, 1, 173, 174, 186, and a few others.
                              the issue with files that contain just digits, as opposed to '.DS_Store' files. The latter could be quite unique for individuals, producing specific hashes—and as such hard to reproduce. But, this theory has not been authoritatively confirmed.

                              BleepingComputer reached out to Google with specific questions to better understand the issue.

                              A Google spokesperson explained that in January the company discovered and addressed the aforementioned issue that "impacted a small number of Drive files."

                              The same month, Google says, they had corrected "all known cases where files were incorrectly flagged for violating Google's Copyright Infringement policy" and took steps to prevent this behavior from recurring.

                              "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

                              The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

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