Filed under: Internet, Office, Web services, Google, web 2.0
Google stumbles again, accidentally shares docs
According to Google's statement, the glitch affected "less than .05% of documents" and only shared files to people with whom a user (or one of their collaborators) had previously shared another document.
Somehow, that's not very comforting.
Regardless of the number of users affected or how isolated an incident this was, it raises some serious concerns. Even if none of your documents were involved, they could have been. Accidentally violating privacy and exposing data (whether it's confidential or not) is a massive problem, and one that just shouldn't happen. Period.
None of my Google Docs contain any sensitive details. They don't contain any useful information about anything, for that matter. That doesn't mean I'm not concerned about who sees them and who doesn't. They're my documents, and I certainly don't want collaborators being accidentally given permission to access them.
For a while I've been pondering finally moving my documents from my desktop to my Google Docs, but that's a move that I'll be putting on hold for the time being.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Peter said 4:43PM on 3-07-2009
Vendors can push cloud services all they want. All is takes is one incident like this to cause people to pull all their data back in-house.
If I'm going to trust you with the security of my data these kinds of things simply cannot happen.
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alex1jam said 4:48PM on 3-07-2009
Who cares. Every one that is smart will never have any evidence (fiscal or electronic) to even jeopardize your privacy as others can and will eventually see it specially if the are looking for the person to slip up. Example don't yell your SSN in the cellphone in a buss people are going to remember it.
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caowick said 7:39PM on 3-07-2009
Why do people trust "cloud" computing? And more importantly, why do technically adept people promote it? Really... this is a no-brainer people!
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taharka said 10:38PM on 3-07-2009
Interesting. There have been more breaches in credit card security over the years and people still shop online. It's pretty easy to sniff emails and people send personal information via that medium all the time. This incident is unfortunate, but does not by itself indicate the end of cloud services.
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Lee Mathews said 10:41PM on 3-07-2009
I don't think anyone is calling this is a sign of the Cloud Apocalypse, but it's an inexcusable gaff on Google's part.
A security hole is one thing, but a backend misstep by the service provider that causes data to be shared is something different.
Joe said 10:47PM on 3-07-2009
How about skipping g-docs and trying another online doc site like zoho?
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taharka said 11:06PM on 3-07-2009
"I don't think anyone is calling this is a sign of the Cloud Apocalypse..."
Interesting statement considering the very first comment reads:
"Vendors can push cloud services all they want. All is takes is one incident like this to cause people to pull all their data back in-house."
Lee, I did agree that it's unfortunate. But do you really think the previous comments are correct? This is one incident. There have been hundreds and thousands of other breaches in online security due to "mistakes" but we still use many of those services.
Inexcusable? Really? Mistakes are bad, I agree. But they do happen, so I tend to measure companies and people not simply by the fact that a mistake was made, but also how the mistake was handled. I can't say how people should judge Google on this, but I don't think the generalizations made about cloud services are accurate. It's almost like saying banks are generally not safe because of a single bank robbery. Or that the airlines are not safe because of a single plane crash.
By the way, "security holes" are often caused by missteps.
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Mysterius said 11:32PM on 3-07-2009
I agree. Lee, your response (and those of others) is frankly over-exaggerated and uncalled for. This is one very minor, limited glitch.
Why should we expect perfection from "cloud services"?
I understand that it takes more for a new product to gain user trust, but any rational observer must see that your demands are absurdly high. By your reasoning, this financial crisis is clear cause for abandoning the banks.
As for security, can you honestly say that your data is less secure with Google Docs than on all but the most stringent private PCs?
jan geronimo said 3:36AM on 3-08-2009
This is a tad worrying to me. I've been using google docs when I write my posts. I find it convenient - easily accessible wherever I happen to be. You're right. Our documents may not contain sensitive personal information, but just the same for a giant company like google to blunder this way is a cause for concern.
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Makaainana said 4:34PM on 3-08-2009
Lets up the ante. If your company, agency or a CC company discloses information that in any verifiable way damages you they are presumed at fault in law, and only can be absolved by conclusive proof that it was not their fault.
Otherwise they pay the damages.
Further all court costs must be paid by the company, CC or agency that disclosed.
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