Google Explains Tuesday's Drive, Docs Bug That Marked Some Files As Violating Terms of Service (9to5google.com)

On Tuesday, Google's cloud-based word processing software was randomly flagging files for supposedly "violating" Google's Terms of Service, resulting in some users not being able to access or share their files. Google today explained the issue and addressed concerns that arose. 9to5Google reports: Several users on Tuesday morning reported no longer being able to open certain files they were working on in Docs, while others were locked out mid-edit. "On Tuesday, October 31, we mistakenly blocked access to some of our users' files, including Google Docs," Google said in a blog post. "This was due to a short-lived bug that incorrectly flagged some files as violating our terms of service (TOS)." Afterwards, Google provided a comment to Gizmodo noting that a code push made earlier that morning was at fault and that full access had been restored to users hours after the bug first arose. Today's clarification goes on to explain how that error on Tuesday caused Drive to "misinterpret" responses from the antivirus system designed to protect against malware, phishing, and spam. As a result, Docs "erroneously mark[ed] some files as TOS violations, thus causing access denials for users of those files."

Comments

Google can arbitrarily ban me from my own files?

[sehlat]

Looks like it's to drop using Google Drive as my go-to backup for my work projects, or much of anything else, for that matter.

There is no such thing as "the cloud"...

[jonwil]

"the cloud" is really just "someone else's computer" and if you store data on it, that other entity can deny you access to it.

Re:Google can arbitrarily ban me from my own files

[Ol Olsoc]

Until your hard drive blows up, your LAN goes down or your computer goes on the fritz. It's not like local file servers are magically immune to failures.

In those cases, would the cloud somehow still work? That's a hellava cloud that gets th edat through a busted LAN and a non-functioning computer. Majick!

This access denial is a non-polishable turd. If I'm working on a project and suddenly "The cloud" locks me out of it, I'm well and truly screwed with tight deadlines. Wait - I know the answer - I'm supposed to both use the cloud andlocal storage along with my multiple backups. Which means the one item that is redundant is - the cloud.

I'll use dropbox or equivalent for transfer if I have to but never anything stored there or any other cloud storage or backup that isn't directly under my control, and that I can't put my grubby mitts on.