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Comment on Google Drive vs Dropbox | Battle of Privacy in the Cloud? by Privacy issues with Google (Drive)? | AJMBroadcastEducator

Privacy issues with Google (Drive)? | AJMBroadcastEducator — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:45:58 +0000

[...] are concerns about a Google product and privacy. Imagine! Share this:TwitterFacebookStumbleUponDiggLinkedInRedditLike this:LikeBe the first to like [...]

Comment on Google Drive vs Dropbox | Battle of Privacy in the Cloud? by Jason Hanley

Jason Hanley — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:08:11 +0000

I really think all of this terms of service talk is splitting hairs.

The two agreements are basically saying the same thing, with slightly different wording.

They’re going to do what they want, and it’s up to us to keep them accountable.

Comment on Google Drive vs Dropbox | Battle of Privacy in the Cloud? by Brad

Brad — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:28:34 +0000

All great points, Sarah. Thanks for bringing a view of this from publishing!

Comment on Google Drive vs Dropbox | Battle of Privacy in the Cloud? by Sarah Ellender

Sarah Ellender — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:05:52 +0000

Maybe I am being a bit paranoid. It’s not that I believe that Google’s got an army of slush pile readers out to steal our work. I just wonder where clauses like this leave you when you come to negotiate publication rights with agents and/or publishers. Does it mean that Google have taken first rights worldwide?

And in the highly unlikely event that some of your work did get published or displayed by Google for whatever reason, and you’d agreed to these terms, would you have any legal comeback?

Comment on Google Drive vs Dropbox | Battle of Privacy in the Cloud? by Brad

Brad — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:20:38 +0000

You have a valid point, Karla, in that it would be a really bad day at Google if they decided to just randomly pulling files and docs to use for their own purposes. I tend to be a little more paranoid when it comes to privacy and security on the web so for me it is much more an issue with the principle. Literally just changing the one line to remove the right in being able to use the content to promote and they are just about even with Dropbox’s terms of service and I’d be happy to use Google Drive as a paying customer.

Comment on Google Drive vs Dropbox | Battle of Privacy in the Cloud? by Brad

Brad — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:17:04 +0000

Appreciate the comment, Don. You are right in that most of the time these terms of service are practically legal novels which is why Google simplified theirs down from over 60 to just one simple model. I just think they missed it a bit as it would be really hard to do “one size fits all” for as many services they offer being as different as they are.

Comment on Google Drive vs Dropbox | Battle of Privacy in the Cloud? by Karla Porter

Karla Porter — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:07:00 +0000

I have been a long time Google Docs user which I converted to Google Drive & a paid subscriber to Dropbox. It may sound childish and naive of me to say this but seriously who thinks Google is going to go through bazillions of user’s personal/business files so they can use their work? I agree, I prefer the Dropbox TOS – but if a cloud service started pulling crap like that there would be a cyber revolution that would kill them. They are not interested in our docs…..

Comment on Google Drive vs Dropbox | Battle of Privacy in the Cloud? by Don Greenfield

Don Greenfield — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:32:34 +0000

Thank you! I have been reviewing cloud storage for some time and have not found one that I want to commit to. In the process of researching alternatives I have noticed three things that consistently leave me cold. One, the terms of service are a users nightmare. Most of them are so long that I have to take a coffee break halfway through. Most of the offers are sleazy in that they try to lure the customer in with some type of FREE OFFER and you have to dig deep to find out what you are going to pay after the free offer ends. The TERMINATION of SERVICE Clauses generally say if you miss a payment, they have the right to erase your data!
Most of the time I click “I AGREE” terms of service without looking at all of the legal mumbo – gumbo but with storage I so glad that I read first rather than later. You have performed a GREAT service for your readers!

Comment on Google Drive vs Dropbox | Battle of Privacy in the Cloud? by Brad

Brad — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:55:03 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Sarah. You’re absolutely right. I’m not suggesting that Google would run put and publish your book, but with how vague and liberal the terms are currently written, they could use parts of the file or show the file name, which could be your book title, in a promotion without notification or compensation and that’s a deal breaker to me. Thanks again for the comment!

Comment on Google Drive vs Dropbox | Battle of Privacy in the Cloud? by Sarah Ellender

Sarah Ellender — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:38:00 +0000

This has absolutely decided me against using Google drive. I belong to a writers’ group, and a lot of us currently use Dropbox to back up our work. I was looking at Google Drive because it offers more space, but Google’s terms sound perilously close to granting worldwide publication rights to me.

Many of the writers in the group have agents and/or published novels and/or book deals. No way would they want to sign up to something that is allowed to create derivative works, publish, publicly display or perform their material.

I would think this would apply to anybody who wants to hang on to their copyright or IP.