[HN Gopher] Google Drive of Historical Footage Locked and Flagge...
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       Google Drive of Historical Footage Locked and Flagged as Terrorist
       Activity
        
       Author : knaik94
       Score  : 919 points
       Date   : 2021-09-22 20:33 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (support.google.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (support.google.com)
        
       | shadofx wrote:
       | Scroogled lives on
        
       | Aeolun wrote:
       | I haven't said it before, but I'll say it again.
       | 
       |  _Don't host your important shit on Google!_
       | 
       | It's pretty much the worst place you can use as a backup service.
        
       | rexreed wrote:
       | I have more concerns about Google Docs than Google Drive. While
       | files can be moved around and used pretty much the same offline
       | as online, the same cannot be said about the use of Google Docs
       | for collaborative document editing.
       | 
       | If you're trying to de-Google your life, what is a sane
       | replacement for Google Docs in a collaborative team environment
       | where you can have some confidence that you won't lose all your
       | assets?
        
         | midnightGhost wrote:
         | https://www.onlyoffice.com/
        
         | 1023bytes wrote:
         | If you want to own your data you can use Nextcloud with
         | Collabora
        
       | slownews45 wrote:
       | I'm on the AWS cloud. I've never had a problem like this. I pay
       | the $100 / month for the basic AWS support plan. Even store side
       | AWS has done reasonably OK by me (except for all the crap
       | listings in their storefront - wish they'd fix that).
       | 
       | By this I mean any problem I've had has been fixed. So at least
       | Amazon has SOME humans still in the loop handling AWS support
       | tickets and Amazon store calls.
        
         | dudus wrote:
         | I'm on Google Cloud and Google Drive and have never had a
         | problem like that either. I have Google One and it gives me
         | access to humans when needed for chat, email and phone support.
         | 
         | I pay way less than $100/month
         | 
         | My evidence is as good as yours. Anecdotal.
         | 
         | I think the real lesson here is that you should backup your
         | data. Simple as that.
         | 
         | The guy losing access to their Google account today is at fault
         | just like the guy that lost all his data because his HD got
         | burned a decade ago. It's just slightly easier to blame Google
         | than to blame a faulty drive. But ultimately you are the one to
         | blame.
         | 
         | Just backup your Google Drive to a S3 storage or equivalent.
         | And maybe keep a local copy in an HD or optical media.
        
           | npteljes wrote:
           | >I think the real lesson here is that you should backup your
           | data. Simple as that.
           | 
           | It really is as simple as that. People who have their only
           | hard drive die experience the same. "Don't put all your eggs
           | in one basket"
        
       | hereforphone wrote:
       | Tenuously related: Wikipedia articles referencing less than
       | desirable historical figures (e.g. Nazis) are reportedly being
       | deleted en masse.
        
         | prox wrote:
         | Citation needed?
        
           | carabiner wrote:
           | https://www.wired.com/story/one-womans-mission-to-rewrite-
           | na...
           | 
           | There have been a lot of WW2 fanboys who have been writing
           | fawning articles about nazis who won a medal or two and were
           | secretly, actually anti-Hitler the whole time. The reality,
           | as far as documented, is that most of these were run of the
           | mill soldiers without any known tendencies to be treasonous
           | in wartime. She's been finding most of the heroics to be
           | bullshit, and the real soldiers to be nobodies, and hence
           | having the articles deleted per WP non-notable policy.
        
       | thedudeabides5 wrote:
       | 161 comment yelling at either google or the guy for XYZ and here
       | I am just wondering if the bloke got his tank photos back
        
       | snthd wrote:
       | Could this be related?
       | 
       | https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/19/war_thunder_classifie...
       | 
       | >Hungary-based game developer Gaijin Entertainment found
       | themselves in a tactically difficult position last week when a
       | user of their combat simulator War Thunder tried to win an online
       | argument by sharing classified documents in the company's game
       | forums.
       | 
       | Maybe checksums of that document are circulated to cloud
       | providers for censorship purposes.
        
       | kipchak wrote:
       | Looking at pricing for Google One to compare it with a Synology,
       | I noticed my account doesn't seem to have the option for the
       | higher tiers of storage such as the 5TB or 10TB that should be an
       | option, instead 2TB is the highest. Have these plans gone away
       | recently, or is this perhaps an account issue? I see articles
       | mentioning them this month.
        
         | foxpurple wrote:
         | Over 2TB is hidden behind an expanding button. They went up to
         | 10TB iirc.
        
       | cyberpsybin wrote:
       | Mega is more reliable that Google lol
        
       | notyourday wrote:
       | Is he on a free plan? Because if so, I see exactly zero basis for
       | his complaint. He got what he paid for.
       | 
       | P.S. No, I'm not saying that Google is in the right.
        
         | Ensorceled wrote:
         | > I see exactly zero basis for his complaint.
         | 
         | > P.S. No, I'm not saying that Google is in the right.
         | 
         | You are, however, clearly saying they are not in the wrong...
         | 
         | I'm not sure that difference matters.
        
           | notyourday wrote:
           | Not at all. He used a service for years, for free. He got
           | what he paid for, in fact he got more than what he paid for.
           | 
           | > I'm not sure that difference matters.
           | 
           | It does. Customers pay money. He is not a customer.
        
       | bjourne wrote:
       | Not the first time:
       | 
       | "so google disabled my account that i used to make my folder with
       | educational content on Palestine, i.e the drive folder that i had
       | linked in my bio"
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/hotgirlhala/status/1385212069679702020
        
       | ecshafer wrote:
       | I will upvote and comment to hopefully gain visibility at the
       | minimum.
       | 
       | Google really has an unfortunate customer support set up, in that
       | there isn't one. Your best bet when Google does something bad to
       | their customers like this (And regardless if its a bad AI or bad
       | bot, its still Google doing it), is to post it on twitter or
       | hackernews and hope it gets the visibility for a Google employee
       | to fix it, or contact someone who can fit it. That isn't a
       | support model.
        
         | irrational wrote:
         | I have to assume they realize this is terrible PR for them and
         | engenders feelings of distrust, yet, they don't seem care. Is
         | it hubris?
        
           | edoceo wrote:
           | This news will be gone tomorrow, forgotten by Friday and they
           | can spin a flashy thing on Monday. Solved! (for some limited
           | definition of solved)
        
         | Causality1 wrote:
         | Google's fetish for not providing human support is so counter-
         | productive it makes me think there must be a single powerful
         | individual executive maintaining the policy. It's too stupid to
         | have widespread support among Googlers.
        
           | jvalencia wrote:
           | It seems like you could offer phone support and provide it
           | for a little above cost per month. At their scale it would
           | almost immediately be efficient.
        
             | dtjb wrote:
             | That creates some weird incentive structures.
        
           | Avicebron wrote:
           | I imagine this theoretical powerful individual is rewarded
           | handsomely for the decrease in "labor costs" presented
           | quarter to quarter
        
           | shadowgovt wrote:
           | It doesn't exactly have widespread support; it's more that
           | nobody can propose a better solution that doesn't blow the
           | budget completely out of the water.
        
             | falcor84 wrote:
             | Here's one - how about allowing you to pay to get official
             | support if your account has been locked. And maybe even,
             | god forbid, refund you if your complaint had merit.
        
               | aprao wrote:
               | I can see the claims now - "Google is holding my account
               | ransom for $XX/hr of customer support!"
        
               | jedberg wrote:
               | If they offered such a service people would accuse them
               | of locking accounts to increase revenue.
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | strogonoff wrote:
           | You cannot feasibly provide any level of acceptable human
           | support _and_ remain "free" with a huge user base. Meanwhile,
           | being "free" is crucial if your actual paying customer is the
           | advertisers. If you stop being free, you (gasp) normalize
           | paid service. Suddenly you are conflicted and fighting two
           | fronts, you compete with other paid services, your users can
           | actually demand things and vote with their money, etc.
        
             | ChuckMcM wrote:
             | Remember, over $1 BILLION dollars a quarter of free cash
             | flow into their cash hoard EVERY QUARTER.
             | 
             | An absolutely stellar customer support network with real
             | people was being operated by Network Appliance when I was
             | there for less than $60 million A YEAR.
             | 
             | Google is absolutely capable of providing a level of
             | service that is unmatched, but they _choose not to._
        
               | hathawsh wrote:
               | It's possible that Google could provide support, but they
               | are also trying to create a reputation of providing
               | infrastructure so reliable that the technology is simply
               | finished and doesn't need support. They don't want to
               | give the impression that they're giving up that battle.
        
               | nradov wrote:
               | In my personal experience NetApp support was excellent,
               | but most of their customers were at least sane, computer
               | literate, and able to communicate coherently. That
               | situation does not obtain with the masses of Google
               | users.
        
             | Causality1 wrote:
             | Even if that was completely correct it wouldn't apply to
             | their paid services like Workspace, Google Fi, YouTube
             | Premium, etc that _also_ have no customer service
             | whatsoever.
        
           | cmelbye wrote:
           | It would be very difficult to model a financial benefit of
           | offering dedicated support for free products. If you pay for
           | Google One (extra storage), you get access to phone support.
           | I wonder if they would've been able to help in this situation
           | of a locked account.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | kvathupo wrote:
         | Explains my experience with GCP...
        
         | shoto_io wrote:
         | I recently decided against G Drive and for office.com for our
         | tiny startup. One reason being the unreliable customer support
         | often mentioned here on HN.
         | 
         | I hope MS customer support is better...
        
           | sangnoir wrote:
           | Google Workspace has excellent support - unlike Google's free
           | offerings.
        
           | hypothesis wrote:
           | Ironically, someone recently attributed "hope is not a
           | strategy" to Google's engineering...
           | 
           | I definitely understand the sentiment and curious if you
           | researched options before making this switch?
        
           | x0x0 wrote:
           | G Suite / Google Workspace / whatever they're calling it this
           | month has generally very good support.
           | 
           | eg I had to fix a domain issue, albeit a domain issue caused
           | by some stupid google stuff, and was connected to helpful
           | competent people within a minute or two. Peers have similar
           | experiences.
           | 
           | The paying stuff is fine.
        
             | edoceo wrote:
             | I'm a payer, on multiple domains. I disagree with "fine"
             | and suggest "not absolute trash" as a replacement.
        
           | apecat wrote:
           | Any paid Google service with an SLA is perfectly fine.
           | 
           | The choice between Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace should
           | mostly be a matter of taste.
           | 
           | Google Workspace is very straightforward and largely offers
           | better finish and UX. I personally dislike Google's material
           | design and find myself confused by it, but most people seem
           | fine with it.
           | 
           | M365 Business Standard on the other hand is arguably a better
           | deal if you value the macOS and Windows versions of
           | Microsoft's office apps. The UI isn't always good and the web
           | versions suck, but everything is also very flexible and
           | intended to scale to almost everything the IT dept of a
           | Fortune 500 companies with tricky compliancy requirements
           | might require to control a fleet of Windows machines.
        
         | JGM_io wrote:
         | Very obvious : they don't care about you... You're just ore to
         | mine
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | verisimi wrote:
         | Well, when you're making an omelette you have to break some
         | eggs.
         | 
         | There has been a literal, yet largely silent, book burning
         | going on with Google services in recent years. On youtube, many
         | alternative voices are silenced, billions of comments deleted.
         | 
         | I know its a private company, but in the US there are free
         | speech laws + the possibility of using the court system (if
         | someone makes a libellous statement). But no, silencing voices
         | is in the realms of corporate policy - the rule of law has been
         | deemed to not apply.
        
           | garmaine wrote:
           | "Free speech" laws only apply to government restrictions on
           | speech.
        
           | dude187 wrote:
           | I remember during the BLM riots, I had shared probably 50
           | videos of individual destructive and/or violent acts by the
           | rioters in a Slack channel I'm a part of. Probably 6 months
           | later, I went back to look at some.
           | 
           | I found a total of 3 that _hadn't_ been deleted.
        
             | edoceo wrote:
             | That may have just been cleanup on unpaid slack-chamnels.
             | They don't keep the stuff on free tiers forever.
        
               | dude187 wrote:
               | No I mean I scrolled past all the comments that linked to
               | the videos and they were all "the account that posted
               | this video has been suspended" or "that video has been
               | deleted". Don't remember the exact messages, but they
               | were all deleted by Google.
        
             | dotancohen wrote:
             | I'd love to see those 3.
        
           | saxonww wrote:
           | Please don't characterize this as a political voices thing.
           | Of course it's _related_, but this instance is about
           | misclassification of private data, not silencing voices
           | online.
           | 
           | Also, Google is not a private company.
        
             | dreamcompiler wrote:
             | They are a private company in the sense that they are not a
             | government entity, and thus the first amendment does not
             | apply to them. This is a different sense of the word
             | "private" than whether their stock is or is not publicly
             | traded on an exchange.
        
             | PKop wrote:
             | The nature of the problem (a big monopolist behemoth of a
             | corporation is too big and powerful and lacks incentives to
             | change) and the solution (only state action, regulation,
             | mandates, i.e. something _more_ powerful than Google must
             | enforce Google to act) is by definition a political
             | problem. This is like the epitome of what politics is for.
        
         | ohgodplsno wrote:
         | To Google, this is not unfortunate, this is planned. They truly
         | do not give a single shit about you. Consume content and shut
         | up is exactly what they want you to do.
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | Exactly, it doesn't matter if the customer has a problem,
           | they will fix it when it becomes a problem for _them_.
        
         | Haga wrote:
         | Actually it is, it's just well hidden, their support is their
         | developers in their spare time and reachability is your social
         | connectivity graph distance to the next googleyesguy.
         | 
         | Ps: you can increase likelihood of solution by adding words
         | that suggest legal liabilities.
        
         | travoc wrote:
         | That's why making your business completely dependent on AWS or
         | GCP is absolutely insane.
        
         | cm2187 wrote:
         | And to teach other users to stop critically relying on such a
         | capricious service. I have less sympathy when it happens to
         | someone techy, who should know better, but that doesn't seem to
         | be the case here.
        
           | actually_a_dog wrote:
           | IMO, the real issue is relying on any single storage solution
           | for such critical and hard to replace data. You should always
           | have multiple, redundant, _tested_ backups of such data, the
           | minimum being 3 copies, in 2 different formats, with at least
           | one located offsite.
           | 
           | That said, Google does ha reputation for this shit,
           | especially on their free plans, so, you should definitely
           | keep that in mind when storing data on Google Drive.
           | 
           | https://www.unitrends.com/blog/3-2-1-backup-sucks
        
             | okdjnfweonfe wrote:
             | In addition, encrypted backup means they can't do arbitrary
             | scans and decide your content is wrong
             | 
             | While it does make it harder to share things directly, its
             | well worth the hassle
        
         | paulpauper wrote:
         | it is like this for almost anything in which money is not being
         | exchanged. Impossible to get support unless you know someone
         | who can give you a signal boost. Or if your compliant goes
         | viral. otherwise, forget about it.
        
         | rrdharan wrote:
         | Google One, and Google Workspaces both offer paid support plans
         | that cover Google Drive.
        
           | tantalor wrote:
           | https://one.google.com/about
           | 
           | $2/mo or $20/yr
        
           | spicybright wrote:
           | I highly doubt getting locked out of your google drive still
           | allows you to download backups from google backup services...
        
             | himinlomax wrote:
             | They have to provide it by law under GDPR and other
             | directives in the EU.
        
               | megous wrote:
               | They can also just delete the data. That would solve it
               | too. (for them)
        
             | foxpurple wrote:
             | Which is why I download the Takeout backup monthly.
        
           | jazzyjackson wrote:
           | do you still have access to support if your account is
           | locked?
        
             | whymauri wrote:
             | Google workspaces requires you to attach a non-workspaces-
             | related account. Unless they both go down, you can still
             | contact them. Worst case, I believe Workspaces requires a
             | phone number now -- at least Google can't wipe that!
        
               | Miraste wrote:
               | Unless you have Google Fi!
        
             | datguacdoh wrote:
             | haven't had to deal with it, but I would assume it works
             | since you can call them. you don't have to be logged in to
             | request support.
             | https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/9177339
        
           | lucasverra wrote:
           | I pay for Google one since approx 24 months and have had
           | surprisingly decent phone support with less than 3 clicks.
           | 
           | PS: I tend to avoid google services, but google workplace is
           | too damn superior
        
             | jhart99 wrote:
             | This has also been my experience. Google One will get you
             | to the right person to get things fixed. I had a billing
             | issue that they were able to resolve in under 24 hours. But
             | I could see the problem if your account gets banned that
             | has the Google One on it... Would be hard to submit a
             | request when you can't log in.
        
         | version_five wrote:
         | I saw comment in another one of these discussions saying you
         | should treat google as a potentially hostile adversary and have
         | a contingency plan for what to do when they turn on you.
         | 
         | I agree with this really in relation to every cloud provider.
         | If your business continuity and data are important, there
         | should be a plan for how to keep the lights on if a provider
         | through malice or incompetence stops playing nice. The google
         | specific problem is they are into so much stuff that its not
         | just a question of not using them, you also have to consider
         | what happens when your emails are flagged as spam our you're
         | delisted from search, etc
        
           | B1FF_PSUVM wrote:
           | I have no activity on YouTube, Blogger, or any other Google
           | service since they tied up all the accounts, just to minimize
           | the chance of getting my Gmail chopped off.
           | 
           | (Note to self: stop giving feedback on Maps routing. You
           | never know.)
        
             | hunter-gatherer wrote:
             | In a past job I was frequently around the globe and was not
             | able to have my phone and SMS always with me. No matter how
             | many settings I tweaked, it just seemed that google would
             | not let me get into my gmail without my phone. Of course my
             | banks would not let me in without my email. Ultimately I
             | had to "de google" for the sake of being able to use the
             | needed internet services wherever there was internet. When
             | so much is tied to email these days, paying for a service
             | that at least has a phone number to call if something goes
             | wrong seems worth it to me, especially since most paid
             | email services are reasonably priced.
        
             | Dylovell wrote:
             | Man, That's dark. "You went to X location a few years ago,
             | now there's bad stuff happening there. Your google account
             | is banned."
             | 
             | Leave your phone at home if your are going to protest, no
             | matter what or where you are protesting.
        
               | adolph wrote:
               | Eh, eventually they'll cut you off for not attending the
               | good protests. Better off expecting to be cut off and
               | redundantify your dependencies.
        
               | m-p-3 wrote:
               | I have a low-end Android phone that has no Google account
               | tied to it, and all apps are exclusively downloaded
               | through F-Droid.
               | 
               | Briar* is a great app to communicate securely, even
               | during an Internet blackout over Bluetooth.
               | 
               | * https://briarproject.org/
        
         | ycombigator wrote:
         | Honestly don't understand why anyone would use their services
         | unless they had to.
        
       | thatsillyqaguy wrote:
       | Google is f'ed up with bots.
        
       | judge2020 wrote:
       | Stop using Google Drive. Unless you're storing cat photos, or you
       | use an rclone-encrypted mount that is stored in your Google
       | Drive, you can't trust any public file store.
        
         | Gibbon1 wrote:
         | Well you especially cannot trust google for anything. The only
         | reason they let you host stuff is so they can datamine it.
        
       | dsign wrote:
       | This is very disturbing; hundreds of thousands of individuals and
       | companies host their important documents in Google Drive--and pay
       | to do it. Imagine that tomorrow you are locked out of those by a
       | faulty AI, and the company that you have spent years building
       | goes into bankruptcy and the livelihood of your employees goes
       | away, just like that. Google has no business snooping in their
       | customer's data for any reason, much less with buggy software.
        
         | DaiPlusPlus wrote:
         | Google Drive is free. The individual in-question was not paying
         | for the service.
         | 
         | If you do pay for Google's services via G Suite then you _do_
         | get instant human support.
        
           | squarefoot wrote:
           | Being free is not an excuse. If Google can't give a reliable
           | free service, then they should stop offering free services.
           | Thee way they're doing it is way unprofessional.
        
       | tqwhite wrote:
       | I don't mean to be insensitive but what on earth possessed you to
       | have your only copy of _anything_ be held by some gigantic
       | corporation, let alone one as completely nihilistic as Google.
       | 
       | Dear Everyone, Buy a USB stick and keep some copies of your
       | important stuff in your own possession.
        
       | gibsonf1 wrote:
       | I have to say, the fact that google disables the back button once
       | you hit the link above is truly infuriating.
        
         | ColinWright wrote:
         | The "Back" button works for me after I've cluck the link ... I
         | wonder what you're seeing that I'm not.
        
           | gibsonf1 wrote:
           | Ahh, I'm on firefox - wonder why its only there?
           | 
           | Oh wait, I think that's even worse. This is the case for all
           | google sites, if you use firefox, back button is disabled.
           | Maybe this is to worsen the user experience for Firefox and
           | encourage use of Chrome?
        
             | ColinWright wrote:
             | I'm also using Firefox. No addons, running on Ubuntu. I
             | click on the link, read the article, click the "Back"
             | button, and everything works as I expect.
             | 
             | Maybe you have some scripts or addons.
        
               | gibsonf1 wrote:
               | Wow, ok, very interesting. It must be something about my
               | particular environment (Also on Ubuntu) that it only
               | affects google sites.
        
         | adamrezich wrote:
         | this does not occur for me (Chrome, Windows)
        
       | ajb wrote:
       | One of the simplest functions of a justice system - before
       | impartial judgement, before detailed laws, before qualified
       | advocates - is simply the right to summon a powerful person to
       | justify their actions. Increasingly it seems that we will need
       | this to be applied here, ideally in some simpler and less costly
       | way than a full trial. It is just wrong for companies to make
       | money by inviting people to rely on them , and then ghosting if
       | something goes wrong.
        
       | Ansil849 wrote:
       | > The added grievance to this is that my drive also included my
       | own personal family photos and my current book on the subject
       | 
       | I mean, how many times does this need to come up for people to
       | learn the lesson? If you are storing your data with a third
       | party, and you do not have an iron legal contract with this third
       | party, then that third party can and will do whatever it wants
       | with your data, including locking you out of it. We certainly
       | don't like this state of affairs, but that is the world many of
       | us have created.
        
         | DaiPlusPlus wrote:
         | Have you seen the TV ads for cloud storage services? They're
         | _advertising_ themselves as being dependable. We cannot blame
         | average consumers when events like these happen.
         | 
         | We need to stop pretending that software, including free-as-in-
         | beer SaaS, doesn't have an implied warranty. It does. The
         | implied warranty in Google Drive is that "we'll host your files
         | for you". Google screwed-up (an "honest" mistake, it pains me
         | to say) but a consumer advocate (the FTC in the US?) should be
         | going after Google for failing to comply with their own implied
         | warranty.
        
           | lp0_on_fire wrote:
           | Google is well aware this is a problem and actively
           | obfuscates ways to get connected to support (unless you pay
           | them extra, of course) so I have a real hard time accepting
           | this as an "honest" mistake.
        
             | kbenson wrote:
             | Often people put quotes (or even air-quotes) around things
             | to imply it's sarcasm or that it's only that thing if you
             | can suspend disbelief, so I don't think there's any
             | disagreement there.
             | 
             | Additionally, making them accountable for these mistakes is
             | a way to actually have them resolve them, so honest or not,
             | it's likely to stop of decrease in occurrence then.
        
             | DaiPlusPlus wrote:
             | I mean the account lock-out was probably an honest mistake.
             | 
             | The lack of support, however, is not - and is part of
             | Google's business model.
        
               | Kim_Bruning wrote:
               | Hmm, Isn't this moving the overton window? Should we
               | accept that they were viewing his data in the first
               | place?
        
         | munk-a wrote:
         | Welp - affordability. It's expensive and arguably less reliable
         | to get an external hard drive.
        
           | dangs_p3n1s wrote:
           | Penis
        
           | prox wrote:
           | I have HDDs running longer than most Google projects do. So
           | that point is really moot.
        
             | whymauri wrote:
             | Ditto. And when I felt it was near end-of-life, I just
             | moved it over to a more stable SSD.
             | 
             | I'm honestly thinking I'm going to have to backup my entire
             | G-Drive externally and wipe it (for the security of my
             | Google account). I mean, who knows what will trigger the
             | deletion of your Google account these days... I guess the
             | storage I pay for is just for e-mails.
        
               | theodric wrote:
               | >assuming the emails you're sent won't also eventually
               | result in the locking and banning of your Google account
        
               | DaiPlusPlus wrote:
               | Incidentally, I've had more SSDs fail - or misbehave - on
               | me than spinning-rust drives now. And I don't just mean
               | cheap SSDs either, but an Intel Optane 905p I own results
               | in hundreds of PCI Express bus errors every minute when
               | plugged-in to any ASUS motherboard I own, while a SATA
               | Intel 530 woke-up one day completely unreadable. And
               | throw-in a couple of Samsung SSD failures too.
               | 
               | It's enough to make me anxious between backups: at least
               | with spinning rust-drives we can transplant the platters
               | and controllers (separately, even!) while SSD hardware
               | recovery is almost unheard of.
        
               | andrekandre wrote:
               | thats interesting, its been the exact opposite for me...
               | 
               | though the ssds i use are for backup and arent used very
               | often for writing... i wonder if that makes a difference?
        
               | prox wrote:
               | Sounds like a plan, it's actually cheaper in a sense.
               | Today I saw my webhost had nextcloud one-click installs,
               | that might be useful for those files you want accessible
               | everywhere. I already pay for the space, so it doesn't
               | cost me extra.
        
             | DaiPlusPlus wrote:
             | Try explaining RAID (not just RAID0/1, but RAID6 and
             | RAID10) to an average consumer and expect them to maintain
             | their own NAS - that's a bit too much.
        
               | prox wrote:
               | I have vanilla HDDs who do their job nicely for years
               | now. The most important files are duplicated across a few
               | HDDs.
        
               | Ekaros wrote:
               | RAID is overkill and bad designs can cause more issues
               | than it saves.
               | 
               | Two or more external-DDs, copied regularly per how much
               | they are willing to spend time and lose data. One stored
               | in some other place if possible.
        
           | xoa wrote:
           | I don't think this really deserves to be downvoted does it?
           | Even if it's simplified. And I say that as someone who is in
           | a tiny fraction of the population in terms of having my own
           | fairly serious business TrueNAS system at the core of my data
           | story, behind an OPNsense firewall on a fairly fancy network
           | setup and with also my own offsite backups and Backblaze B2.
           | I'm working on upgrading my ESXi system too, continuing to
           | take more stuff self-hosted. And I'm pretty happy with it
           | all, as well as any other benefits it's just plain faster to
           | do stuff locally.
           | 
           | But it's definitely fundamentally more expensive because
           | there are tons of fixed costs that would be much better
           | amortized across more parties. The hardware could handle far
           | more than I throw at it, and importantly the incremental cost
           | of expanding the setup is much much lower then the setup
           | cost. My NAS could easily have nearly triple the storage
           | space at "only" the cost of the drives themselves and maybe a
           | bit more memory (which is dirt cheap). It's not processor or
           | bandwidth limited. I don't need that much space, but if there
           | were another few folks joining me on using it and we split
           | the cost between us we'd each pay less for more. And the
           | whole thing as-is leans heavily on my own personal
           | amortization and professional knowledge, I can justify some
           | of it as a business expense and I actually already knew tons
           | of the basics before doing anything for the first time. A
           | larger group could have someone devoting even more time to
           | it.
           | 
           | That's the simple relentless logic behind "cloud services"
           | really behind whatever layers of fancy marketing or
           | conversely outrage. It really is cheaper at a basic level,
           | but unfortunately the way it's often been implemented lends
           | to centralization and perverse incentives.
           | 
           | Efforts to address it have to tackle those head-on. Ideally
           | at a minimum there'd be legally mandated offering of standard
           | "cloud APIs" for every platform so that iCloud or whatever
           | could be slotted right out for something else compatible. It
           | does seem like there is potential for more decentralized
           | sharing and discovery, but the UI and reliability challenges
           | are quite significant. We'll probably see a lot of gyrations
           | back and forth as everyone searches for the right balances
           | depending on their own situations along with whatever semi-
           | ignorant semi-opportunistic bumbling responses governments
           | come up with. Unfortunately even on HN lots of people tend to
           | reach for sledgehammers over scalpels when it comes to the
           | law.
        
           | JadeNB wrote:
           | > Welp - affordability. It's expensive and arguably less
           | reliable to get an external hard drive.
           | 
           | I think multiply redundant back-ups get expensive, but one
           | external hard drive with scads of space is cheap (at least
           | from the perspective of someone who grew up when you measured
           | space in MB). It won't provide you the security against data
           | failure, but it _will_ provide _some_ recourse for when the
           | cloud provider yanks your data.
        
             | nickthegreek wrote:
             | Won't protect you from fire or theft either.
        
               | JadeNB wrote:
               | Well, it will if it's in a different location. But that's
               | just what I mean--you don't need one solution that
               | protects against everything; different solutions can
               | protect against different threats, and all you really
               | need is one to make it through.
        
       | aboringusername wrote:
       | Aside from all the moral and ethical questions this raises from
       | the usage of faceless AI, really this happens time and again, I
       | suspect so Google can employ less human reviewers and so they can
       | claim "not our fault". I think I've commented on a couple of
       | these posts by now every time with the same advice.
       | 
       | But anyhow, people should be well aware cloud providers _do_ use
       | AI systems and they _will_ make mistakes, so you should:
       | 
       | 1: have multiple redundant backups, seriously this is a no-
       | brainer, AI or no even Google can lose data if a storage device
       | dies. Depending on how important the data is you might consider
       | as many backups as you can manage.
       | 
       | 2: encrypt, encrypt, encrypt. If you store even so much as a text
       | file unencrypted you're making a mistake. Use archives, double
       | compressed, use the myraid of tools out there to ensure your
       | files can't be read by anyone but you and who you decide to give
       | the key to.
       | 
       | Is this more work? Absolutely, but at the end of the day
       | regulations mean Google need to scan content, and they will have
       | a false positive match, and then it goes on HN and magically
       | Google restore the data.
       | 
       | I hope they get the data back but sometimes being burnt is
       | actually a lesson in remembering best practice, why oh why your
       | only copy of family photos are on one user hostile data-mining
       | platform is beyond me, but it's a terrible idea.
        
         | everybodyknows wrote:
         | From the post:
         | 
         | >Google Drive which I used to back up all of my data
         | 
         | "back up" rather than "only copy".
        
         | judge2020 wrote:
         | Yes, the entire business model is Google offering a service to
         | everyone, hiring the bare minimum number of moderators,
         | automate most moderation, and treat the <0.001% of people
         | caught in the cross-fire as as a negligible loss.
        
           | staticelf wrote:
           | To be fair it probably works tho.
        
         | franczesko wrote:
         | + never rely on login with [provider_name]
        
       | throwawayswede wrote:
       | Why the heck do people still store their important documents
       | (that they absolutely can't do without) somewhere where they have
       | no control over and where they could be kicked out at any moment
       | is beyond me.
       | 
       | Obviously it's always sad to see such a great amount of work go
       | to waste, but at what point are we just going to start blaming
       | people like that who are just careless with their data.
       | 
       | Don't use a cloud you don't have total control over for something
       | that you absolutely need control over. At the very least don't
       | use fucking google.
        
         | wil421 wrote:
         | Most people are not technology savvy let alone HN elitists.
         | When I talk to non tech people about stuff like this I get a
         | lot of blank stares. Whenever I've said if the service is free
         | then your are the product I get even blanker stares.
         | 
         | Most normal people wouldn't consider using Google Drive as
         | being careless with there data. They would actually considering
         | it being smart as Google is one of the largest tech companies.
         | 
         | Put yourself in someone else's shoes for a minute. People who
         | have these kids of hobbies do it because it's their passion and
         | a lot of times, the best ones at least, don't have a lot of
         | disposable income to spend on said hobby.
        
       | tyingq wrote:
       | I'm curious if _" has locked my account"_ means just Google
       | Drive, or if he also lost Gmail, Android functionality, Chrome
       | profiles, Adwords, YouTube, YouTubeTV, purchased movies and tv
       | shows, Fitbit, Nest, sites where he used federated login
       | (DoorDash, Uber, etc).
       | 
       | I see, for example, his YouTube channel is up, but it's
       | associated with 'team@armouredarchives.com', and not the personal
       | gmail account he posted in the linked forum.
       | 
       | If it was the entire account, something really needs to be done
       | with Google to force them to make these kind of actions as narrow
       | as possible. They can really disrupt your life with a broad
       | account lock.
        
         | mig39 wrote:
         | In the link, he says that he can't even use his account to post
         | on the support forums, so is using an alternate account.
         | 
         | So I assume it's the entire Google account.
        
         | whymauri wrote:
         | In my anecdotal experience, a locked account == locked
         | everything else. That's why they had to make the post from a
         | different account than the locked one.
        
         | theodric wrote:
         | The second line of his post indicates that he's unable to post
         | using the email account in question, so I must assume that
         | means that the account in its entirety has been blocked
        
         | lom wrote:
         | He said it in his description that his email is locked as well.
        
         | quantumBerry wrote:
         | If google really thinks he is a terrorist, which apparently
         | they did, why on earth would they allow him to use gmail or
         | android? It makes sense they would lock him out of everything
         | possible.
         | 
         | What we really should be asking is why is google examining user
         | data at all. They should not be in the position where they can
         | even find out who is a terrorist.
        
           | tyingq wrote:
           | I imagine Google takes business from lots of places and
           | people that are unsavory to some. One man's terrorist is
           | another man's freedom fighter.
        
             | quantumBerry wrote:
             | Terrorism is usually only defined by your allegiance, yes.
             | In this case google is a US company so in the case they
             | know violent islamic extremists use their platform, their
             | allegiance is with the Americans, even if it happens to be
             | the Americans blow up innocent Arabs and the extremists may
             | just be engaging in self defense.
        
           | filoleg wrote:
           | > What we really should be asking is why is google examining
           | user data at all.
           | 
           | Without reading into the details, I don't think that google
           | arbitrarily examines all user files on Google Drive (and
           | please correct me if I am wrong, but that's what I remember
           | since the last time this discussion was had).
           | 
           | Google only examines files that were shared with other users
           | or were made accessible to others through a shareable link.
           | Which, sorta makes sense, because that's how a lot of people
           | shared illegal content or streamed videofiles (sort of like a
           | personal youtube). And if you don't share those files with
           | anyone and just keep it as your personal cloud drive, I don't
           | think they examine it.
           | 
           | >why on earth would they allow him to use gmail or android?
           | 
           | Google is essentially your mail service (gmail), video
           | platform (youtube), cloud storage (gdrive), and tons of other
           | completely separate services. In physical world, violation of
           | terms of one of the services leads you to being banned only
           | from that service, unless criminal law gets involved. If the
           | law gets involved, then the law can get you banned from using
           | quite a lot of services. But until the law makes the
           | judgement, being banned from a grocery store cannot
           | automatically and without any recourse get you banned from
           | your bank, your car insurance, your mail service, and many
           | other things.
           | 
           | I guess my point on the latter is that no private business
           | (but law) should be able to prevent a person from using
           | multiple completely unrelated vital services. Here are a few
           | scenarios I thought of that would illustrate how it would
           | work:
           | 
           | * An airline banning you for being an asshole on a flight by
           | adding you to a denylist used by other airlines as well?
           | That's congruent with my idea, because it is all within the
           | same service (airlines), and it won't be done automatically.
           | 
           | *A judge completely blocking you from flying by locking you
           | up for participating in terrorist activities? Sure, because
           | the law did it after an investigation and followed proper
           | legal processes.
           | 
           | *Wells Fargo closing down your account because you were an
           | asshole at Kroger when shopping for groceries and got banned
           | from that store? That would be crazy talk.
           | 
           | The only difference between the google scenario and the
           | kroger+Wells Fargo scenario is that kroger+WF are not a part
           | of the same company. But would it be acceptable for WF to
           | close down your account if WF and Kroger were a part of the
           | same parent company? In my opinion, it wouldn't be ok.
        
             | Avicebron wrote:
             | I hope I'm not the only one who got a little squeamish at
             | this...I understand the logic, "don't let people
             | transfer/share things that are illegal". But it doesn't sit
             | right that 1) A gigantic private company operating across
             | most of the world/laws/jurisdictions/precedents etc...is in
             | charge of determining (with little to no human oversight)
             | what can and can't be shared between individuals. Who might
             | even be in competing legal jurisdictions. Seems wonky. 2)
             | that it's commonly accepted that they get to look into it
             | period. It's similar to having every package/letter you
             | ever send opened and looked through and judged (ik postal
             | services sometimes scan) but I can't imagine they open
             | every single envelope
        
               | filoleg wrote:
               | >But it doesn't sit right
               | 
               | Your argument makes sense, and I share your feelings on
               | an emotional level, but at this point, the whole argument
               | can be reduced to "sharing video files streamed from
               | google drive is an equivalent of hosting a video on
               | youtube, so the same rules apply", and that's hard to
               | beat.
               | 
               | If you want to store whatever material you want for
               | personal consumption, you are welcome to. But if you
               | enable sharing, that's when all those extra rules start
               | applying, because you are effectively turning it into a
               | personal youtube that is still hosted by google, and DMCA
               | strikes and other stuff will apply just the same.
               | 
               | Similarly, you can make backup copies of a DVD movie for
               | yourself by burning them onto writeable DVDs. The
               | legality of it is dubious due to copyright law being
               | plain awful at times, but you won't get prosecuted for
               | that if you truly had it only for personal backup
               | reasons. The second you start distributing those DVDs in
               | massive amounts to people, you start inviting a pretty
               | legal trouble to your doorstep.
               | 
               | Mind you, I absolutely disagree with the ban of both the
               | historical footage, as well as the whole google account
               | just because of that footage. However, I do believe that
               | making video public via a shareable link or otherwise
               | puts it in the territory where content rules similar to
               | youtube might get reasonably applied.
        
             | quantumBerry wrote:
             | A better analogy would be if you made terroristic remarks
             | to the sporting goods clerk, and walmart banned you not
             | just from sporting goods but the entire store. Gmail and
             | Google Drive are just different departments of the same
             | place.
             | 
             | But in this case it's just that walmart zoomed in on your
             | notebook with a security camera, saw some arabic scribbles
             | about allah on a tank drawing you were sharing with your
             | friend, and decided you were a terrorist. Sure, they
             | absolutely should toss you out the store if they think you
             | are one, but they shouldn't have been zooming in your
             | notebook in the first place.
        
               | tyingq wrote:
               | Not a fan of that analogy. Walmart can't brick your home
               | thermostat, voice assistant, tv box, cable service,
               | federated logins to Uber, DoorDash, your email account,
               | cloud storage account, and so on.
        
               | quantumBerry wrote:
               | So you think if google really thinks you're a terrorist
               | that they are obliged to go on supporting you? There's a
               | big difference between having no idea terrorists use your
               | platform, and actually supporting them by enabling those
               | you believe to be terrorists.
        
               | filoleg wrote:
               | All of those walmart departments are doing the same
               | thing: they sell you different kinds of consumer goods in
               | a single marketplace.
               | 
               | If you get banned from the entirety of Amazon marketplace
               | by harassing sellers in the gardening equipment
               | department, that seems fair. If you get your AWS account
               | banned for doing the same thing that has nothing to do
               | with AWS, that's a different story. One thing is a
               | consumer goods store, the other is a cloud service
               | provider.
        
               | quantumBerry wrote:
               | We're not talking about harrassment, we're talking about
               | google thinking this is a violent terrorist who is
               | sharing pictures of their armored vehicles.
               | 
               | Can you really say with a straight face that once google
               | thinks they have a terrorist, they should just go on
               | supporting that person in any way whatsoever? There can
               | be very serious penalties for knowingly aiding
               | terroristic acts.
        
         | bserge wrote:
         | You lose access to everything, yes. Which is really fucking
         | dumb.
        
       | adamiscool8 wrote:
       | I know this is avoidable, and I know it's a semi-regular
       | occurrence, and I can recognize Google's moderation problem is
       | non-trivial, but I really can't shake the feeling that Orwell was
       | off by a letter and the future will truly just be a bot stamping
       | on a human face forever.
        
         | closetohome wrote:
         | You'd think Google breaks into your house, uploads your data,
         | and deletes the originals.
         | 
         | Think of cloud accounts like any other form of backup. Two is
         | one, one is none.
         | 
         | Hard drives die, cloud services come and go. No backup is
         | forever.
        
         | quantified wrote:
         | Skynet doesn't need Terminators. Software bots can keep us busy
         | all on their own.
        
           | 8ytecoder wrote:
           | You don't even need bots - simple sorting algorithms do more
           | damage. It shows human vulnerability more than anything else.
           | All it took was a single fake message to get 600 people
           | killed in Burma.
        
             | Kim_Bruning wrote:
             | Do you have a good reference for this? I'd like to use it
             | in future discussions :-)
        
       | stevens37 wrote:
       | Encrypt everything before uploading.
        
         | danlugo92 wrote:
         | Tips and tricks for doing this the easiest way possible?
        
           | symlinkk wrote:
           | Deja Dup on Linux supports this. Just pick a directory to
           | back up, sign in with your Google Account, and check a box to
           | encrypt your stuff before uploading. Google Drive just sees
           | encrypted chunks with file names like "duplicity.gpg".
        
           | mNovak wrote:
           | Cryptomator has overall a nice clean interface, I find
        
           | cdumler wrote:
           | Rclone. It has multiple backends and you can chain them:
           | encrypt -> cache locally for performance -> store on backend.
        
       | zibzab wrote:
       | This is your daily reminder that nothing in your digital life
       | should EVER entierly depend on any Google services.
       | 
       | Im writing this from an android phone. It is not de-googled per
       | se, but uses a replacement for every single Google service
       | (files, books, maps, search, movies, ...). Yes I pay money for
       | those replacements, but God its good to not my life in the hand
       | of a overzealous ML algorithm.
        
         | tyingq wrote:
         | There's a middle ground too. I use lots of cloud services, but
         | I also spent $300 on a home NAS device to sync copies of the
         | stuff I can't live without. Not affiliated with them, but I
         | bought a Synology unit, and the UI lets you pretty easily sync
         | things like Google drive.
         | 
         | I'd still be scrambling around a bit to fix stuff if Google
         | banned me, but I'd at least have copies of the most important
         | things.
        
       | narrator wrote:
       | Google is too successful. Their primary preoccupation these days
       | is how to lose users they don't want.
        
       | Goety wrote:
       | We need an alternative to the internet as an actual timeline
       | keeper. This is ridiculous
        
       | jeffbee wrote:
       | As a person who formerly worked on the technical side of anti-
       | abuse (both content and account) at Google, I urge you to read
       | these kinds of reports critically. There is no reason to believe
       | any of the details given in the post, which incorporates a lot of
       | supposition about how this system works. For example, we have no
       | rational basis for believing that this was done by some robot at
       | Google. It is at least as likely that the content was flagged by
       | some other user.
       | 
       | Anyway, Google will never ever comment on the reason for account
       | disabled in public, therefore whining about it in public is not
       | going to work. The way to get accounts enabled is
       | https://support.google.com/accounts/contact/disabled2
        
         | Nicksil wrote:
         | >As a person who formerly worked on the technical side of anti-
         | abuse (both content and account) at Google, I urge you to read
         | these kinds of reports critically. There is no reason to
         | believe any of the details given in the post, which
         | incorporates a lot of supposition about how this system works.
         | For example, we have no rational basis for believing that this
         | was done by sone robot at Google. It is at least as likely that
         | the content was flagged by some other user.
         | 
         | >Anyway, Google will never ever comment on the reason for
         | account disabled in public, therefore whining about it in
         | public is not going to work. The way to get accounts enabled is
         | https://support.google.com/accounts/contact/disabled2
         | 
         | No, Google has proven itself to be a pretty awful enterprise
         | and deserves no benefit of doubt.
        
         | joosters wrote:
         | _The way to get accounts enabled
         | ishttps://support.google.com/accounts/contact/disabled2_
         | 
         | There have been plenty of reports that this doesn't work
         | either, with a bot simply 'reviewing' your account and not
         | enabling it.
         | 
         | The OP is 'whining about it in public' because it's the only
         | hope they have of getting a human being at google to notice the
         | problem and save their data. If google had a functional support
         | system that wasn't 100% bots, users wouldn't have to complain
         | in public!
        
         | tedunangst wrote:
         | I'm supposed to believe it's better that a human reviewed this
         | ban?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | chapium wrote:
         | Google locked a 10 year old email account of mine and never
         | followed up.
        
         | cgio wrote:
         | A user flagging is not the same as banning. The process that
         | follows a flag can have human intervention and the assumption
         | is that it does not currently in Google. As someone who worked
         | in this space you could provide information on the process that
         | would be valuable. Or maybe not on the basis of NDA or policy.
         | In the former please do, and let us know the human touch points
         | in the process end to end. If the latter, similar to your
         | criticism for taking what OP says as granted, we cannot also
         | take what you say as granted just by virtue of work experience
         | you claim in a forum.
         | 
         | We actually do not care if Google comments or not, that is an
         | internal policy decision for the time being. With legislation
         | in Europe though I believe it will have to explain automated
         | decisions and also will have to provide users with their
         | content.
         | 
         | I am inclined to believe, btw, that someone who stored
         | terrorism or other questionable material, would not be bold and
         | stupid enough to make noise about losing access to it.
        
           | jeffbee wrote:
           | You really should not believe what I say just because I said
           | it, but neither should you just resign all your mental
           | faculties every time you find some forum post that confirms
           | your prior assumptions. Just read critically.
        
         | Fiahil wrote:
         | > As a person who formerly worked on the technical side of
         | anti-abuse (both content and account) at Google
         | 
         | oh well, did you "dogfooded" your own human-review system once
         | flagged by your anti-abuse bots ? Of course not, and that's why
         | your system suck. If your are/were working at google, you are
         | part of the problem, and if you want to do something about it,
         | you should come down from your ivory tower.
        
           | jeffbee wrote:
           | I would say that Googlers are pretty likely to get locked out
           | of their accounts, it happened all the time when I was there,
           | usually for exceeding rate limits of one kind or another
           | (Googlers get orders of magnitude more emails than anyone
           | else for some reason). Dogfooding is generally practiced at
           | that company. Every major system I worked with had new
           | releases inflicted on insiders first.
           | 
           | https://testing.googleblog.com/2014/01/the-google-test-
           | and-d...
        
       | croes wrote:
       | How many times does that have to happen before people realize
       | there is no cloud, only other people's computers. The data that
       | is stored there is no longer yours, just as thanks to Apple and
       | Co. your hardware no longer really belongs to you, but you only
       | enjoy a temporary right of use. It will be interesting to see
       | when hardly anything remains of an entire generation because
       | everything comes from the cloud: Photos, videos, games, film,
       | music. No more treasure troves in the attic, no more of grandma's
       | record collection or dad's DVD collection or uncle's old console
       | games. Everything just rented and when removed from the catalog,
       | they are gone forever. Only our plastic waste remains.
        
         | scohesc wrote:
         | That's honestly really scary and I never thought of that.
        
           | Spooky23 wrote:
           | I worked as an intern for an archive digitizing old letters
           | among other things. Many aspects of key historical figures
           | are available -- letters, etc. You know what they were
           | thinking because you can read some of their personal
           | thoughts.
           | 
           | In this day and age, if you're lucky emails exist, but due to
           | discovery, etc many entities just purge everything. Bad news,
           | this era will be a black hole for future generations to
           | understand. Good news is that the idiocy of this era will be
           | toned down.
        
             | Y_Y wrote:
             | Maybe Google's history department will make some money from
             | their monopoly on the primary sources.
        
             | x0 wrote:
             | OTOH, if that sort of data is not purged, it could be far
             | richer than any letter. Many people pretty much use their
             | phones/devices as extensions of their minds, and phones are
             | a very personal, private place.
        
           | N00bN00b wrote:
           | There is a counter movement, for example, these guys place a
           | significant role (and as far as I know primarily with a
           | practical focus): https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/
        
             | bserge wrote:
             | They are the worst pirates I've ever heard of.
        
               | jjulius wrote:
               | What a terribly inaccurate, sweeping generalization.
        
               | bserge wrote:
               | Ah, but you have heard of them!
               | 
               | (gotta do everything myself, but I can go to sleep now
               | :D)
        
               | TeMPOraL wrote:
               | This is HN; best jokes are like apples - hard, but not
               | too hard, and in moderation.
        
               | LivelyTortoise wrote:
               | If it makes you feel better, I immediately spoke this
               | line in my head after reading your post :-)
        
               | kbenson wrote:
               | Post in the top 5 of the subreddit currently: "Is there a
               | good self hosted, cross platform OneNote / SimpleNote
               | like app out there ?"
               | 
               | Yep, scum of the earth. /s
        
               | theodric wrote:
               | If everything I've paid for and supposedly own some right
               | to access can be taken away from me by a wayward
               | algorithm at a moment's notice with zero recourse, you
               | bet your ass I'm going to "pirate" content, even if I
               | still buy it first!
        
           | bserge wrote:
           | Never heard of Amazon and Apple removing files from users'
           | accounts? It was kinda big news. For a day.
        
             | spicybright wrote:
             | It's not that, it's the risk of permanently losing
             | culturally significant media because of it.
             | 
             | Not everyone is a techie that can switch from google's
             | friendly UI, and transfer everything to another safer
             | service that operates differently.
        
         | 13415 wrote:
         | We have to be able to rely on _some_ cloud services, though, if
         | we want georedundant backup of local files. I agree that
         | relying on Google drive without additional backups is a bad
         | idea, and it 's generally a bad idea to store unencrypted files
         | on cloud servers (or rely on _their_ encryption), but the
         | problem is more general.
         | 
         | It should be prohibited by law for cloud service providers to
         | snoop around in other people's data without a warrant, no
         | matter whether that snooping is automated or done by humans.
        
         | gorwell wrote:
         | This is why I've stopped buying books on kindle. It gives
         | Amazon the power to censor your book library, and it would not
         | surprise me at all if we see them exercise that power soon.
        
           | jackson1442 wrote:
           | I personally find a rip of the book online to drop onto my
           | reMarkable then purchase it through some ebook marketplace.
           | Now I have a DRM-free copy and the author gets their cut.
        
             | Underphil wrote:
             | That's certainly noble, but it doesn't send the message
             | that you're unhappy with DRM. You're ultimately engaging in
             | piracy and at the same time _not_ voting with your wallet.
             | 
             | I don't see any alternative, but just wanted to make that
             | point.
        
               | edoceo wrote:
               | Steal the content and Venmo the creator?
        
           | barbazoo wrote:
           | Whenever I buy an ebook I go through the painful process of
           | downloading it to my laptop either directly from the store
           | (e.g. Kobo) or via Calibre [0] if I bought it from Amazon
           | which I try to avoid, removing DRM via some tool I found
           | somewhere and uploading it to the ebook again via Calibre.
           | It's annoying an probably illegal but no one can take my
           | ebooks away that way.
           | 
           | [0] https://calibre-ebook.com/
        
             | kubanczyk wrote:
             | Me too. Just to be sure I've also put my Kindle on Airplane
             | mode as soon as I got it. It has been working like this for
             | years.
        
           | nitrogen wrote:
           | They already have, when they remotely deleted copies of 1984,
           | IIRC whose copyright had expired in one country, but not in
           | another.
        
           | j1dopeman wrote:
           | They have pulled books before I believe. However there are
           | many good drm free ebooks. I still use a Kindle because I
           | like the device but I keep it in airplane mode nearly all the
           | time and copies of drm free books on my pc. Edit: I manage my
           | library with calibre and the device plugged in. You never
           | have to take it off airplane and it gets better battery life.
        
           | hughrr wrote:
           | I actually really don't care about kindle because it's only
           | useful for certain formats I tend not to keep anyway and is a
           | lot more convenient and cheaper than hunting down physical
           | copies of stuff.
           | 
           | I originally had over 200 books, all read, gathering dust so
           | I gave them away. They took up space and attention and were a
           | pain in the ass when I had to move house.
           | 
           | As for the convenience, I do a lot of hiking and it's not
           | much fun dragging two books from the expanse series with you
           | versus a kindle in a ziplock bag.
           | 
           | I have physical copies and PDFs for technical books and
           | reference material though. And a lot of text files.
        
           | CydeWeys wrote:
           | Amazon banned me (for something completely unrelated to
           | Kindle books), and I lost access to everything on Kindle as a
           | result. It's a good thing I hadn't spent much money there,
           | and obviously I'm not buying any ebooks going forward.
        
             | jwalton wrote:
             | Buy ebooks from Baen directly, or from Tor on your service
             | of choice. These publishers release books DRM free, so you
             | actually own the file. Any other ebooks you "buy", you're
             | renting.
        
               | uncoder0 wrote:
               | Alternatively if it's not available DRM free I'll just
               | buy it and support the author from wherever and then
               | pirate a DRM free copy and archive it.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | Apple is still ok, just don't use iCloud.
        
           | ajklsdhfniuwehf wrote:
           | /facepalm
        
         | hi5eyes wrote:
         | you will own nothing and be happy
         | 
         | tell yourselves a decade ago: everything is streamed, if
         | something doesn't meet the most up-to-date social guidelines
         | created by a mob of microbloggers it's removed from a
         | storefront or completely kicked off most of the internet, oh
         | and privacy? too radical!
         | 
         | clown world
        
       | andrea81 wrote:
       | I won't click because I don't trust Google anymore, and really
       | never trusted
        
       | himinlomax wrote:
       | At least in Europe he could file a complaint with the data
       | protection authority, and at the very least request a copy of all
       | his data.
        
       | kwijibob wrote:
       | Google Takeout is good insurance. I backup my full google dataset
       | every 6 months or so.
       | 
       | When Google AI blocks an account, why don't they offer a window
       | of using Google Takeout to get a .zip of all their stuff?
        
         | the_snooze wrote:
         | Given the siloed disjointed nature of various Google products,
         | it's probably because the security and Takeout teams don't care
         | to deal with with one another.
        
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       (page generated 2021-09-22 23:00 UTC)