Can the Public View All the Documents I Upload on Google Drive?

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Can the public view all the documents I upload on Google Drive? If so, then how do I set on private viewing?

This question is tricky, because “right” is a legal concept, and this topic has non-legal aspects to it. In short, there are really a few related and important questions. Does Google have the technical ability to access your files in Drive? Assuming Google has the technical ability to access the files, does Google corporate policy allow access and, if so, under what circumstances? Assuming Google has the technical ability, do all Google employees have the ability or just some? Assuming Google has the technical ability, what mechanisms exist to prevent improper access? How does the law affect Google's access? If Google decided to broaden or change its policies, would the law limit what it can do? Does Google have the technical ability to access your files in Drive? Yes. This is necessary to provide the Drive software. If you want to provide additional protection for your documents, you can encrypt them before uploading them to Drive, but that will make it impossible to search the file by its contents and will also require figuring out how to safely back up your encryption key. Does Google corporate policy allow access and, if so, under what circumstances? Generally speaking, no. There are two major exceptions. A valid business reason (such as handling a user support case and retrieving that user's files with that user's express permission in order to help them resolve their support issue). A valid legal request, such as a subpoena, national security letter, etc. Google pushes back on overly broad requests and advocates on behalf of users to limit the scope of such requests to just what is relevant to the case. Do all Google employees have the ability or just some? Access to real user data is extremely limited. Developers generally have access only to fake, test account data. Access to real data is typically limited to robot accounts that run the server software, a small number of employees who act in the role of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and keep the servers running and who need this level of access to restart or update the servers that have such access, and in a limited capacity to customer support who can access the data of just the one user t are helping while the support case is open. What mechanisms exist to prevent improper access? Google takes insider threats very seriously. In addition to requiring a valid business justification, access to user data by Google employees is logged and carefully audited. Google requires frequent recertification by Google employees on their data access policies, and inappropriate access is grounds for termination. How does the law affect Google's access? If Google decided to broaden or change its policies, would the law limit what it can do? There is more than one law involved here, since Google operates internationally. Some countries have more rigorous and restrictive privacy laws than others. Regardless, even if all countries were to permit unfettered access, it is in Google's business interest to do its utmost to protect user privacy. And Google has often advocated in favor of laws that promote greater user privacy in addition to providing significant funding to privacy and security research and development. Privacy is a fundamental necessity to retaining users on its ad-supported platforms and to courting businesses to use Google for their enterprise-related apps. Regressing on privacy would significantly harm their business, and thus I would not be too worried about policy changes here. -Anonymous Xoogler

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