Privacy Concerns On Google's 30 Day Data Policy

darkmonkeh writes ""Google Inc. is offering a new tool that will automatically transfer information from one personal computer to another, but anyone wanting that convenience must authorize the Internet search leader to store the material for up to 30 days", CNN reports. Although Google's policy states that it can hold data for up to 30 days, "Google intends to delete the information shortly after the electronic handoff, and will never retain anything from a user's hard drive for more than 30 days", said Sundar Pichai, director of product management. With pressure on Google after the request by the Bush administration for personal information, privacy concerns may be hard hitting."

Comments

Here's a question:

[TripMaster Monkey]

From TFA:

To enable the computer-to-computer search function, a user specifies what information should be indexed and then agrees to allow Google to transfer the material to its own storage system. Google plans to encrypt all data transferred from users' hard drives and restrict access to just a handful of its employees.

Why exactly do any of Google's employees need access to this information? Why can't the content be encrypted by the user via an asymmetric key scheme (like PGP) and decrypted again once it's reached the target system?

I'm really not seeing the necessity for Google to have any access at all to users' information...am I missing something?

Re:Here's a question:

[Marsmensch]

They're not evil, but they still want to see those pics of your girlfriend naked.

Don't Do It

[krgallagher]

"With pressure on Google after the request by the Bush administration for personal information, privacy concerns may be hard hitting."

If you have privacy concerns, don't use the service. If you are stupid enough to transfer private or sensitive information over someone elses network, let alone store it on their drives, you deserve what you get. I use some online storage for information that I would not want to lose in the event of a catastrophe at my home, but it is nothing I consider sensitive. If it was, I would either store it elsewhere or use some kind of encryption on the files.

Technical feasibility?

[DRJlaw]

I suspect that the 30 day requirement is a matter of technical feasibility rather than "evil intentions." I seem to recall Google announcing that it could not guarantee that email deleted from Gmail would be deleted from Google's data storage system, at least immediately. When you consider how much redundant storage Google holds, and how that storage is distributed around the world, the 30 day provision may be more of a CYA from legal liability.

The policy may very well translate into "We will make a best effort to delete the information when you instruct us to do so, but we will only guarantee that the information will be deleted within 30 days."

Not to mention

[isa-kuruption]

I work for a healthcare company, and we have already attempted to block Google Desktop at our proxies. There are HIPAA concerns with allowing users to transfer personal data between their work machines and . But we're not the only ones, banks and other healthcare companies will eventually do the same.

Hopefully this will be sufficient. If not, we will need to block access to all of Google, which would seriously upset many people within the company, and of course this will cascade to other organizations. Will Google be happy it's pissing off a bunch of Fortune 50 companies?

Mind you grammar!

[Black Parrot]

> Whit google already indexing the whole web

That should be "whit teh google", sillyhead.

In dubio pro reo

[Opportunist]

Now, I'm a big fan of privacy and having my data securely and tightly to my chest.

But, to show off some more latin, cui bono? What's google's gain in the game? What could they possbily gain from having access to my data? My highly sensitive christmas pics?

Hardly.

What they do get in that way is an idea where people and data travels. Information about their users. That's it. And that's by far more valuable than your grocery list or granny's phone number. IMO they don't care about your data. What they want is the information where data comes from and where it goes to. And that can be simply achived by tracking where you are when you dump the files on them, how long they stay there and where you are when you pick them up again (or, what's also possible, where the person is that picks them up).

That's the info they're after. Not your files themselves.

So why the 30 days? Well, this could be connected with their update and deletion cycles. As someone already pointed out, their servers are most likely redundant. It's not like at home, where you simply hit "del" to get rid of a file. Their array of servers first of all has to realize that the file is actually supposed to be deleted. Or it could be that they are using some nightly job to clean up and purge all the "waste" data, and that this can't be done during normal operation, not even more than once a month, simply because the servers got better things to do.

So, in a nutshell, I don't suspect "evil" in that 30 days cycle. More likely, it's simply a technical necessity, and a legal one too. So people don't start suing them 'cause the files are still on their servers 10 days after they picked them up.