Google drive security

[belgiumkiddo]

Hey guys, quick question.

 

I basically just want to know if it's safe to upload any files/documents to google drive (for backup purposes)? With "safe" I mean, will other random people be able to see these documents (cause I know some streamers who use google documents that everybody can see. Will this also be the case with mine? If so is there any way to disable this function? I really do not have the money for buying a local backup system and the space that google drive provides me with is more than adequate so it would be really nice to be able to use it. 

 

(Btw bonus question, in the terms of agreements under the privacy section it says that google is able to see and gather any "personal" information, does this mean that they ca see the contents of what you want to upload? If so, does anyone know if they look at the contents of the files of just an average joe?)

 

I'm sorry for being such a noob when it comes to this topic, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. 

Thanks for the help in advance  

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

by default nothing is shared publicly. we dont know how much power google employees have to look at our files

[Guest]

Your files will be shareable (viewable by others) if you select for them to be - even then, only those with a link or people you've chose to share with can see it. So there's no real worry on that front. 

 

In terms of their privacy policy, it will no doubt give them permission to use your files, whether they do is another question. I highly doubt it's some Google employee having a look at people's nudes they've backed up to their Drive. Looking at your usage (meta data of your files such as type and size) to 'improve their service' maybe.

 

[belgiumkiddo]

Thanks for the quick reply. 

This was all I had to know  

[Paradine Sage]

If you want to upload personal information then you should probably go and download Veracrypt, make an encrypted volume containing the information that you want to back up, and then upload that to your Google Drive. In that case it doesn't matter whether or not Google can look at your files or even if Google is hacked, all that they will see is an encrypted data volume that they would need a password to access.

 

Veracrypt is free, open source, and easy to set up and use for a task like this while also using encryption algorithms strong enough to satisfy national security requirements. The NSA might, possible, be able to gain unauthorized access to your data in that case but no one short of that has a hope in hell.