So after really trying to buckle down and continue with my novel, I opened up my file in google drive and started reading from the beginning, as in CHAPTER 1. I knew that I needed some serious editing help but there was a certain part that was just not right. Come to find a whole chunk of my chapter was missing. And not taken out because I edited it out, it was just gone. (i'm guessing I accidentally deleted it at some point.) Queue the full panic, i knew there was something there but I wasn't 100 percent sure what was said. Thankfully Google Drive saves every revision that you ever do so I was able to go back and get the rest of my chapter. Anyone else have any close calls where you lost part or all of your work and were not able to get it back? The anxiety I just felt was AMAZiNG...lol
When i first started my book i saved it on a USB device so that i could transport it between my dekstop and laptop, but then thought i lost it a few weeks in. Being a computer scientist i should have known better as everyone is always telling us to back everything up multiple times. It's easy to understand why cloud storage is so big now.
While I can fully understand the advantages of cloud storage, don't you worry about google data mining your information? It bothers me when I see my modem lamps flashing when I am doing things locally on my PC, not using the Internet, of course it probably is an update being down loaded but just as likely some company is uploading data from my system. Browse a few things and you have more cookies than the Cookie Monster could eat in a lifetime [ actually I am not sure if the Cookie Monster eats cookies but assume it does ], our PCs seem to be an open book despite not using cloud storage, it would only seem to make it more open by using it. I am guessing Indarican and croak3r are millennials so life on the Internet is assumed and you are comfortable with big brother looking over your shoulder. I used to save my data on floppy disks, still have them, now best used as coasters. We have surpassed "1984" and don't even know it. It's tough being old in this new world.
I don't understand people worrying over (legitimate) company data mining. If google wants details on my computer use, they're welcome to it. Somehow I doubt anything I have is all that interesting.
What do you think they're going to do? Are you smuggling drugs? Can't you just have some basic restraint not to reveal things you don't want revealed? It's the same thing you do with conversation.
Yeah, I also don't see why anyone would care about that. That's the trade off for a good free service and that's cool by me.
That's happened to me once or twice on Drive before, but luckily just like you it saved everything. It's such a blessing
Nothing is free. When I google something, almost immediately afterward ads start popping up about the item I was looking at while doing other things on the Internet. The ads are cleverly placed so that they appear where I have placed my cursor to link to some action I wanted, but due to service delay I am now positioned to click on something I truly don't want to click on. The screen updates just as you click again since it appears the first click was not acknowledged so you are left wondering where you are being directed. I appreciate that this forum allows me to login with something other than my email address. When I login with an email address I tend to type in my email address password, of course the login fails but you are left wondering did the service just capture my password attempt? If you are not concerned with how much data is being collected by others that is good for you, but that doesn't work for me. Data collection is a doubled edged sword. There was an interesting program on PBS recently I believe it was titled "Big Data", might have been more to the title, and it discussed this subject in what I thought was a revealing way.
I never actually thought about the data mining, but I am not particularly worried about it, I just know that there is no way I would have been able to save each revision that I have done. I am notorious for going up and just hitting the save button in Word, so all I would have happen to retrieve was the last thing I wrote. I don't even know when I deleted that part of the chapter so I would have been screwed without google drive.
Yeah, that's why I used the words "trade off," of course. The service is "free" in terms of my use of the service without making payment, and in exchange I'm a "product" for Google on the other end, who can use my data to target advertisements to me from their customers.
Corporations are not big evil entities. They're a bunch of people, many of whom are probably good people. Never forget that. Again, what are they going to do? What thing are you afraid of? You're giving out data regardless of what you do. Why is Google Drive the line?
The Internet is the line, Google has mastered data mining along with numerous other companies. While not all corporations are evil entities there are enough to give anyone pause for concern. The primary goal of any commercial business is to make a profit, not to serve their customers, that is a secondary goal that is used to achieve the first. I love to use Google and I don't have any major problem with it, however they openly admit that they search Google email accounts and use Google searches to gather data. So you have to use it with your eyes wide open. Before we had email one commonly suggested method for releasing your pent up anger at someone was to write a letter voicing your complaints, but never mail it. If you use your computer to write such a letter and are actively using Google Drive, even without mailing it, what you wrote may be in the cloud. It is the loss of control over who has access to my information that is bothersome for me. If you get your identity stolen a couple of times you might understand my POV somewhat more clearly. I don't use Google Drive so maybe there are ways to control what documents you have stored that can completely negate my concerns, but I wouldn't bank on it. Bottom line, the OP has benefited from using it along with many others so it is a good service without a doubt, but I will still prefer backups to my local drives preferably removable drives. Someday a hacker will figure out a way to imbed a virus into a service such as Google Drive and the users will inadvertently download it and infect their system. The outcome feels predictable IMO.
All progress comes with consequences and limitations. There are problems with everything. If you write something like that letter, what are they going to do with it? They don't care about your private life. They deal with millions of people, you are just one. It's a normal reaction what you're describing, but I blame it on Survival Paranoia. It feels scary for them to know that sort of thing but it's not the information you should be worried about. These people are clever and they have many clever people at once. The information they really want you're probably already giving them willingly and knowingly. Profiling for pop-up ads is Google's interests. Who you're pissed off at is not. I could put all the porn that I use directly onto their laptops and they would just delete it. Heck they have records of what porn I use. It's not useful. So fuck it. I used to worry about Facebook privacy. Now I only continue not to use it because I'm entrenched in what I already use, I'm not that social, and I don't like the atmosphere. Really we get a big head when it comes to internet privacy. We hear one story about a company using data from people to personalize ads or something and suddenly we're masters of internet privacy, we know all the dirty secrets, and there's no way we're already giving out tons of data. Again, what are you afraid of? You can talk in ideals and feelings but what is actually going to happen?
You don't need to be on Google Drive to get a virus, even if someone does figure out how to do that. Just surfing the web is a bigger risk. As for data mining, doesn't bother me.
The OP was really referencing how Google Drive saves his work for each revision, not sure how a revision is determined, probably a save action, but this is different than a backup. If you save your work a few times during a session and had deleted a lot of stuff inadvertently or with intent, the old data is retrievable with Google Drive. I imagine some document programs also do this as well, but for free it would be hard to beat the Google Drive included capability, other than my paranoia about cloud data storage.
