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Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

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Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#21

Post by drummer »

013a wrote: post #5

This is crossing a very bad line, and is absolutely unacceptable. My company of about 50 people on G-Suite will be canceling our subscription and moving to Office 365 within the next three months. We had discussed it in the past due to their history of flagrant disregard for the security and privacy standards we require, but this has galvanized the conversation and we're prioritizing it on the near-term now. I'm sure…

The future is all about self hosting and/or peer to peer technology not controlled by a central authority.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#23

Post by LeoPanthera »

ycombonator wrote: post #20
LeoPanthera wrote: post #13

This headline is very misleading. They didn't delete the file from the user's Google Drive - they disabled public sharing for the file.

To quote a popular politician “what difference does it make ?”

An enormous difference. When you share a file publicly, it's Google doing the sharing.

When a file is privately stored and accessible only to you, Google doesn't have to know or care what's inside it.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#25

Post by thephyber »

fredsanford wrote: post #4

It's 1984 in 2020 all over again. Paging Mr. Orwell...

Your take is an overreaction.

All of the big file hosting platforms have long had copyright and child porn content filters. The fact that they are policing ToS violations (presumably only after they are reported or scripting re-violations) doesn't seem anywhere near 1984-style censorship.

I do fear that this will give the tin foil hats more conviction that "there's something to it since they are hiding it!" and not more motivation to be skeptical of this particular thread of inquiry about the pandemic.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#27

Post by thephyber »

cgb223 wrote: post #6

Further proof that when you upload a file to Google Drive, you don’t own that file, they do

You use the platform, you abide by the contract. My only concern is that contract violations (or even gray area violations) are not always predictable by the customer because the legalese in the ToS is so vague.

You are overloading the term "own" and your use of "that file" is ambiguous. You "own" (in many senses) the local copy of the uploaded file. You only lease the space and hosting for the remote copy, assuming you pay your bill and abide by the contract. My coworker overflowed his Google Drive quota and learned that lesson the hard way.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#29

Post by threatofrain »

013a wrote: post #5

This is crossing a very bad line, and is absolutely unacceptable. My company of about 50 people on G-Suite will be canceling our subscription and moving to Office 365 within the next three months. We had discussed it in the past due to their history of flagrant disregard for the security and privacy standards we require, but this has galvanized the conversation and we're prioritizing it on the near-term now. I'm sure…

I don't believe individuals have enough legal or political authority to take on all responsibility themselves if they were sharing questionable material. That means some of the responsibility falls on Google, because we the public shall demand it of them.

Google didn't delete anyone's files, and even then some responsibility already falls on them just for hosting your content. If Google were part of distribution, that would be a separate wrongdoing in the eyes of the public.

Google does not have the luxury of a government institution to which it may delegate all difficult questions of institutional responsibility (unlike the FDA or the FCC, both government organizations where companies may delegate responsibility), thus putting the pressure on Google to exercise oracle-like vision.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#30

Post by walterbell »

AwaAwa wrote: post #28

Looks like they are flexing all the work done for Project Dragonfly. Waste not, want not.

Good point. There could be a new free-speech AI project for time-based "declassification" of previously censored material, to inform public study of censorship technologies.
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