Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dumped by Google

lastwordonnothing.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 201 posts

Re: Dumped by Google

#41

Post by trhtrsh »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #32
tannerc wrote: post #28

Looks like we may start needing cloud services to backup cloud services. That'd be an interesting service, particularly if it worked seamlessly in the background.

All fine, until all the data ends up stored in the very same Amazon server room, at which point in the event of server fire your "cloud backups" will probably go down along with the original data.

You are misunderstaning how cloud storage works. Amazon/Google data is stored in 3-6 different disks, often in 2 or 3 different datacenters. If that data were lost due to physical failures, you would have much larger worries, like dust from a meteor blocking out the sun.

Re: Dumped by Google

#43

Post by badideabear »

drawkbox wrote: post #8

Definitely a reason I have always paid for Gmail/Drive before it was that. But the actual reason is quite scary why it triggered the issue: "My data was intact save for the last thing I’d worked on–a spreadsheet containing a client’s account numbers and passwords. It seems that Google’s engineers determined this single document violated policy and locked down my entire account. My request to get that document back is…

I'm more appalled that he's storing his client's account passwords in a spreadsheet. It's ridiculously easy to accidentally share the wrong doc with the wrong people.

Re: Dumped by Google

#44

Post by ori_b »

baby wrote: post #24
betterunix wrote: post #2

People have been warned about relying on web services already: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-s...

Alright but then how do you safely store your important data? Imagine if the same thing happened with Dropbox (if you're using it).

If it happened with Dropbox, you would still have a local copy.

Keep a backup on media you own. Or, at the very least, mirrored across different providers.

Re: Dumped by Google

#45

Post by magoon »

Please don't keep sensitive client data in a spreadsheet on Google, or DropBox. If you must store it in a cloud, at least encrypt it and store it in a locally-encryptable service like JungleDisk.

Re: Dumped by Google

#46

Post by blantonl »

svachalek wrote: post #39
capo wrote: post #3

Same as every other “cloud provider”, yet somehow Google is the one subjected to these overwritten accounts and the almost mandatory pseudo law/policy musings that follow. You might want to take a look at some policies from others in the industry to get a more accurate picture of this landscape. These policies are constructed as such to mitigate litigation, which the author concedes. Regardless I'm glad this instance…

"Somehow"? What other "cloud provider" does John or Jane Q. Public use?

I don't think his comment was focused on John or Jane Q Public, but rather the general use of cloud services and the dangers of these types of events happening.

For instance, I host most of my business on AWS. We recently had a compromised server that delivered malware to some of our Web visitors resulting in Google completely blacklisting our site, and ultimately resulting in AWS sending us a threatening notification that we were violating their terms of service by serving malware and we could be terminated at any time.

Within an hour of finding out the root cause we cleaned up the malware issue, but we spent the next 24 hours trying to get Google to remove the blacklist and kept our fingers crossed that AWS wouldn't just terminate all our 17+ instances and ask questions later - effectively putting us out of business.

Welcome to the cloud!

Re: Dumped by Google

#47

Post by betterunix »

baby wrote: post #24
betterunix wrote: post #2

People have been warned about relying on web services already: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-s...

Alright but then how do you safely store your important data? Imagine if the same thing happened with Dropbox (if you're using it).

Back it up on hardware you own. You can buy multiple terabytes at low cost, you can use duplicity/Deja Dup if you want secure remote backups (on a server of your choosing), etc. You can send people files without having to rely on any specific service provider -- there is email, there is rsync, etc. It is cheap and easy to set up a file server and dynamic DNS, assuming you have a broadband connection (surprisingly many people do not, but that is a separate issue).

The problem with these web services is that they allow a single service provider to screw you over on a whim. Why put yourself in that situation? Why leave yourself vulnerable to unscrupulous competitors and governments who might try to copy your files without permission, because some service provider was more concerned about complying with warrants and monetizing your data than about security? Stay in control of your data, and you will not be posting these sorts of stories to HN.

Re: Dumped by Google

#48

Post by bradleybuda »

dunham wrote: post #35
falcolas wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this file is indeed the cause of the account closure... what happens if you're using a Chromebook? Then not only do you loose access to that computer, you are restricted to what kind of content you can create and store on your computer. I hope this gentleman is wrong. I really do.

It's plausible. I've personally seen phishing done via google docs. And, at one point, Oxford blocked google docs because of phishing. So phishing via docs is probably a common occurrence. To combat this, I wouldn't be surprised if Google had software that tried to detect this (maybe look for spreadsheets of username/passwords), and shut down the accounts associated with it.

Spreadsheets of usernames and passwords are very common - many companies use this to share access internally (not that that's a good idea, but that's a different topic). I've talked to dozens who haven't had their Google accounts shut down. I'd be truly surprised if this was the only reason for the ToS violation.

Re: Dumped by Google

#49

Post by ubersync »

ubersync wrote: post #14

I can't access the article. Can anyone tell shortly, what the author is complaining about?

I could finally access it. Well, ideally all the services should be decentralized (each person/company hosting their own email, social network, cloud storage etc). But if that is not feasible, you can at least try and use a different company for each service. In that case violating the terms of one service would not shut you out of others.

Re: Dumped by Google

#50

Post by sneak »

ubersync wrote: post #18
capo wrote: post #3

Same as every other “cloud provider”, yet somehow Google is the one subjected to these overwritten accounts and the almost mandatory pseudo law/policy musings that follow. You might want to take a look at some policies from others in the industry to get a more accurate picture of this landscape. These policies are constructed as such to mitigate litigation, which the author concedes. Regardless I'm glad this instance…

There is a need to decentralize email, social networking, cloud storage etc. FreedomBox is a step in the right direction. So is Diaspora Project.

There is already an effort underway to decentralize email. It's called SMTP and works really well. I think they started it sometime in the 80s?
Post reply on HN