The leader of our writers club has suggested that we post some of our short story manuscripts on Google Docs for sharing and critiquing by other members. Is Google Docs secure enough to put non-copy righted manuscripts online? I have heard and been told that some of these cloud apps are not very secure. Gloria
Your material IS copyrighted - it's copyrighted as soon as you write it down. But just holding copyright doesn't do much to keep people from stealing your work. That said - has anyone ever heard of an actual case of someone stealing an unpublished writer's work? I mean, it's so easy to pirate published work, stuff that's already been polished and refined. Is there anyone out there who actually goes to the trouble of stealing unpublished short stories?
Thank-you BayView; the point of the question was, is Google Docs a secure cloud app where one's work would not be pirated?
Google Docs is secure. It is encrypted storage. If you're really worried you could encrypt on your end before uploading.
only Google and the people you share the document have access to it. the one I would never use or recommend is any cloud app from Microsoft never put your work on their servers.
If you happen to have a business account with MS they use not only encrypted transfer but encrypted storage. Short of that, the storage is not encrypted. Google stores it encrypted but at a lower level of encryption than for transfer, from what I understand. But if you're encrypting your own files locally before saving to the cloud I think either one would be just fine.
Microsoft gives out its encryption keys so do not be fooled by their marketing propaganda, your files are accessible by call centres staffed in 3rd world countries with no accountability.
