Google Drive Privacy: 4 Misunderstood Facts

Privacy and security questions have bedeviled the launch of Googles new online file-storage service. Ignore the hype and consider these four key facts.

Oracle v. Google: Tour The Evidence (click image for larger view and for slideshow)
When people upload a file to the new Google Drive online file-storage service, who owns the file?
For answers, one might turn to the unified
terms of service
that cover all Google products: When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations, or other changes that we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display, and distribute such content.
In other words, Google appears to reserve the right to do anything it pleases with uploaded data. Or does it?
With such questions now bedeviling
Google Drive
, here are four privacy--and file-ownership--facts about the new service.
[ Is proposed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) a threat to your privacy? Read
CISPA Bill: 5 Main Privacy Worries
. ]
1. Googles All-In-One Privacy Policy Creeps People Out
Googles terms of service--which applies to all of the companys Services--seems quite wide-reaching. So, does that mean that Google would actually take peoples content and reuse it? Im sure that the assertion of perpetual, worldwide rights over their customers intellectual property and the use cases of promoting, improving, or developing new services based on that content is just the result of over-zealous lawyers attempting to head any potential future lawsuit off at the proverbial pass, rather than an outright attempt to go against their in formal motto, Dont be evil, said Rik Ferguson, director of security research and communication at Trend Micro, in a
blog post
.
2. Google Doesnt Own Peoples Files
With such comments accompanying the launch of Google Drive, the company moved quickly to issue a statement clarifying what its terms of service means. As our Terms of Service make clear, what belongs to you stays yours, according to the statement. You own your files and control their sharing, plain and simple. Our Terms of Service enable us to give you the services you want--so if you decide to share a document with someone, or open it on a different device, you can.
3. Competing Services Offer Similar Privacy Policies
Services such as
Dropbox
, Apples
iCloud
, and Microsofts
SkyDrive
differ in that they only detail the terms of service for a single service, as opposed to Google, which uses a
single privacy policy
to cover everything from Gmail, Google+, Google Docs, and in the future, even the
merger between Google Drive and Chrome OS
.
But in a
close reading of Google Drive competitors privacy policies
, The Verge found that they essentially reserve the same types of rights for themselves--only they just use slightly more artful language to communicate them. Or as the Microsoft SkyDrive terms of service put it: Your content remains your content.
4. Files Hosted In Cloud Face Certain Security Risks
Are fears over what Google might do with peoples Drive files overblown? From a privacy standpoint, the Electronic Frontier Foundations media relations director and digital rights analyst, Rebecca Jeschke,
told Ars Technica
that many users of cloud-based file storage and sharing services would do well to
remember past cyberlocker takedowns
. In light of Megaupload, its possible that users are worried about the wrong thing, she said. Notably, uploaded files might get lost, stolen,
exposed
,
made irretrievable
, or even
obtained directly from the service provider with a court order
, perhaps without the owners knowledge.
In other words, would-be users of online file storage services should weigh more than just Googles privacy policy before
trusting their files to the cloud
. And in the words of the Microsoft SkyDrive terms of service: If you dont agree, dont use the service. Thanks.
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Google Drive Privacy: 4 Misunderstood Facts