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Sex Workers Say Porn On Google Drive Is Suddenly Disappearing (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Porn performer Avey Moon was trying to send the lucky winner of her Chaturbate contest his prize -- one of her videos, titled "POV Blowjob" -- through her Google Drive account. But it wouldn't send, and Google wasn't telling her why. "I thought there was something wrong with my file and I got rather worried," Moon told me in a Twitter message. "I had promised this guy his content and he was so good to me. I was panicked because I thought if I couldn't give him his prize, he would feel like he got ripped off and never come back again or worse, he could actually file a complaint with Chaturbate about me and they can take money from me." She's not alone. Six porn performers I talked to and more on social media said that they suddenly can't download adult content they keep on Google Drive. They also said they can't a share that content with other accounts or send to clients. In some cases, the adult content is disappearing from Drive without warning or explanation. The porn performers I talked to started sounding the alarm on Twitter last week. They said that Google Drive no longer seemed sex-trade friendly, detailing error messages and sharing cloud storage alternatives with each other.
When I asked about sexual content being blocked on Drive, a spokesperson for Google directed me to the Drive policy page -- specifically the section on sexually explicit material, which says, "Do not publish sexually explicit or pornographic images or videos.... Additionally, we do not allow content that drives traffic to commercial pornography." Writing about porn and sex is permitted, the policy states, as long as it's not accompanied by sexually explicit images or videos. According to Google, Drive uses a combination of automated systems and manual review to decide what's in violation. One worker said they've been using Google Drive for most of the last five and a half years but just recently received an error message when sending a video, saying that the item may violate Google's Terms of Service, with a link to request a review. In this case, the video title was explicit, but other adult performers report similar messages when sending content with non-explicit titles. "Some sex workers are wondering if this has something to do with the impending vote on the SESTA-FOSTA bill," reports Motherboard. We now have learned that the Senate has passed the bill.
When I asked about sexual content being blocked on Drive, a spokesperson for Google directed me to the Drive policy page -- specifically the section on sexually explicit material, which says, "Do not publish sexually explicit or pornographic images or videos.... Additionally, we do not allow content that drives traffic to commercial pornography." Writing about porn and sex is permitted, the policy states, as long as it's not accompanied by sexually explicit images or videos. According to Google, Drive uses a combination of automated systems and manual review to decide what's in violation. One worker said they've been using Google Drive for most of the last five and a half years but just recently received an error message when sending a video, saying that the item may violate Google's Terms of Service, with a link to request a review. In this case, the video title was explicit, but other adult performers report similar messages when sending content with non-explicit titles. "Some sex workers are wondering if this has something to do with the impending vote on the SESTA-FOSTA bill," reports Motherboard. We now have learned that the Senate has passed the bill.
I follow a few cosplay people on Twitter, and some have been saying that even files that have no nudity but just filenames that contain explicit terms, are being locked such that they cannot be accessed nor downloaded.
Some people were storing their ONLY copy of an image on Google Drive, for the cosplayers these may represent the results of expensive photoshoots they paid for...
I never really got into using Google Drive and I'm pretty thankful I never did. It is absurd that any file you uploaded may suddenly be seized such that you will never see it again.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
than the Left...
And this is exactly why people should not trust the cloud.
'The cloud' is a fancy way of saying, "somebody else's computer". And they can control what stays on their computer. They control what security (if any) is in place to protect your data.
These services and companies can not be trusted.
-I only code in BASIC.-
It is not clear whether or not those accounts are the free accounts, or if they are paid for.
I switched from Drive to Dropbox a while ago. I wasn't cool with having a fair amount of important data locked up in a 'free' solution that could be turned off at any time. I'd rather pay the couple of dollars a month for Dropbox.
There's the problem. Don't store your only copy of expensive data on Someone Else's Computer aka The Cloud(tm). At least have a local backup.
If it's on someone else's computer, they can impose their rules, laws, and religious superstitions on you.
If you need cloud hosting, go with a non-US provider. The US is gradually reverting to a pit of Puritanism and religious zealotry. More evolved societies only worry about what can actually harm people (i.e. terrorist recruitment material), not about the naked human body.
Seems like violence and gunplay is fine in US media and TV shows, but the moment you see one-fifth of an areola, the Puritans get up in arms.
Everyone knows how that ends. Everyone who cheers when the big companies clamp down on thinking the wrong thoughts will soon find that no one will support them when they are silenced.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
And lo and behold here's the easy way to do it. https://arstechnica.com/inform...
I've been in the hosting market for a while and even though I've never had any directly pornographic contracts to fill I've had some that touch the edges, so to speak. One project I had was for a sex toy seller looking for a website, online transactions, marketing materials etc. I learned a lot in a few days reading T's and C's from hosting providers about what does and does not fly with certain providers. Given that the hosting sphere is basically dominated four or five big players and many thousands of their re-sellers it's not surprising to find that most web content hosts are very adult-theme sensitive. If the big players are against it then so are the vast majority of smaller ones.
I'd been of the understanding for a long time that Google Drive didn't want adult content on its service. As the title states: I'm genuinely surprised people had been successfully using Google Drive in such a fashion for such a long time by what appears to be a lot of people.
Ah well, there are alternatives at least. I feel like it would have been nice to tell users about exactly why their content is no longer allowed, but that's far too much for a consumer peon to ask from a faceless & soulless corporate golem.
Bonus: while typing out that last sentence the word golem flags my spell checker as being incorrect. The word "golem" has the spell check autocorrect suggestion of Google. I'm using Chrome. Irony levels are over 9000.
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.
First they banned racists, and I did not speak out because I was not a racist.
Then they banned gun owners, and I did not speak out because I was not a gun owner.
Then they banned porn, and I did not speak out because I did not distribute porn.
Then then banned me, and there was no one left to speak for me.
This is why if you believe in freedom of speech, you have to protect even speech you find reprehensible. If you do not, you are giving the morality police control over what speech is allowed. Reprehensible speech should be deemed reprehensible because people have viewed or listened to it and deemed it reprehensible. Not because someone in a position of power in government or some company has deemed it reprehensible and prevented the public from viewing or hearing it.
Porn has nothing to worry about from the Right, and knows it I even read someplace that Utah is the state with the largest number of porn downloads, on the average. Porn *IS* terrified that the #MeToo and #KillHarvey and whatever other movements percolating up from the feminist Left that demonize the objectification of women will begin to impact porn consumption.
...or just use an end-to-end encrypted cloud service to begin with, e.g. https://mega.nz/ Also, the allowances are much more generous, starting at 50GB for free accounts. P.S. I don't work for them or have any affiliation with them.
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
OK, hands up who's read Google Drive's terms of service?
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
While I would agree mostly, that if you dont like a TOS go somewhere else, but google and apple phones use their own services.
Microsoft apps want to backup to microsoft drive. Google apps want to backup to gdrive. Apple to idrive. You get the idea.
It's very dishonest when a company owns a majority of a market like android phones, combines services then tries to tell you how to use it.
If they didn't like LGBT and started removing your LGBT apps would that be an issue? How about your hunting pictures, your state legal pot, your protest photos?
Damn slippery slope for the Internet generation. These companies are basically public services, if you own A PC, A MAC or a Android device, they are a defacto monopoly to their platform. You wouldn't want your ISP to block you, your Telecom to block you, your Power company to block you, why would you want your storage device to block you, your email app to block you, your social media site to block you, your free speech goes all along those lines.
Stallman was only partially correct, its not copyright that will be used to control you, its the Terms of Service.
Demand a free and open internet, free speech, free use, no censorship.
This story reveals a violation of assumptions I had made about Google(TM)'s handling of my data
This story reveals a VALIDATION of assumptions I had made about Google's handling of my data. Which is why I try not to let Google have anything I care about.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Excellent google proof file compressors are FREE and LEGAL and trivial to install and use.
7-zip. Grown up software with constant updates and source code if you want it. Not this pre-packaged, corporate approved shit from apple, microsoft of google stores.
If you use the software (apps) that come with your OS, you're a fucking cretin. Worse, you help turn the world to shit.
The most fantastic thing about the computer revolution is that it is a people's revolution. The computer empowers everyone who cares to make even the slightest effort. Wanna code and create- the most insanely powerful hardware is cheap, and the most insanely powerful software is frequently free. But if you won't make even the slightest effort, there are monsters in the woods always waiting to lead you astray.
The New Puritanism is a terrifying movement, originally sold by the right in the 1980s, and now fully adopted and infinitely more weaponised by the left. It plays on the Human weakness known as 'guilt'- not guilt of something real, but guilt of things like one's own sexuality.
Images of the female breast are now even starting to be banned in Germany and France. The neo-liberal movement (a creation of Orwell's actual Ingsoc, the fabian movement of the UK, currently headed by Tony Blair) has fully subsumed the neo-con movement, and is now represented by the major left and right political parties of the West (Trump is 100% neo-liberal, as is Obama and Clinton).
What can the ordinary decent Human do? Not be a dumb-dumb. Disengage from all mainstream media outlets, and avoid all Soros fake indy ones. Seek information (pull) rather than allowing the gatekeeprs select and push 'information' at you.
And the computer world is a playground for GOOD, if only you make the tiniest of efforts. Install that ad-blocker (and subscibe to better filter lists as well). Use open source and free programs where possible- especially the portable and light weight apps- coders should be rewarded for efficiency and convenience.
Use FAKE NAMES for your accounts where you may want to say something political or controversial- otherwise the state will 100% use your words against you in the future if you ever become 'important'. There is no shame in using 'anonymous' as a shield when the enemies of humanity are so remorseless and vicious.
And NEVER EVER store your files unencrypted in 'the cloud'. Learn how automated tools 'scan' your files, and how to ensure your data is not visible to scanning. Zipping with a password is super fast and simple on modern hardware. Video containers should have included encryption options from the get-go, but for various reasons they did not, outsisde of DRM riddled streaming formats.
You may need to change the file extension for google MAY ban certain types of file that seem incorrectly formed down to the encryption- but believe me google will never dare restrict files to a list of known authorised types. A .mp4 that does not register as a .mp4 cos it is now encrypted may fail on googe drive, but in this case change the extension to an unknown type (like, say, .zkz) - cos google will always accept that it doesn't know about personal file projects and apps.
For sure this means changing your .mp4 into a .zip, then renaming .zip to say .zkz, but wow, what a little effort.
If google dares to move to the next stage of banning .zip files with passwords by examining every file, then the files will have to be fully encrypted - which means no headers within the files that reveal its type- ie., fully random data. Google can do nothing about fully random data except WHITELIST- that is only allow file types that Google can parse. Google will NEVER whitelist.
I wonder if you can store encrypted files on Drive? If so just email the key to the person you share it with.
You forgot the important step of naming the encrypted videos
CuteFluffyKitten00x
If you're going to store anything in " The Cloud ", encrypt the file prior to upload and change the name to something that doesn't make it obvious as to what the file may contain.
IE: Insane Blowjob while smeared in Green Jello -> Cat Video #3
This really should be common sense by now.
I guess if you really want to use a cloud service such as google drive, you'll want to use an app that encrypts and changes to numeric filenames.
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
This is actually a good way to get doctors to stop using the service.
Is this what slashdot is reduced to, giving free advertising to some wank site?
Slashdot's motto has always been: "Nudes for Nerds!"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
There's the problem. Don't store your only copy of expensive data on Someone Else's Computer aka The Cloud(tm). At least have a local backup.
It’s irrelevant whether we’re talking about something controversial, or photos from your kid’s christening - it’s simply stupid to keep your only copy on a cloud drive. You’ve got to have at least one backup that’s under your own control. More than one is even better.
#DeleteChrome
Damn slippery slope for the Internet generation.
What really makes me sad is how many of the younger generation in the USA are perfectly ok with censorship, as long as the people censored are the ones they dislike. This seems to happen more and more, in universities, in public forums, in social media.
I used to live in one of the former Iron Curtain countries, and freedom of speech was something we could only dream of. After the fall of communism, being able to speak one's mind in public was pure joy. I can't believe people born with the right to free speech can be so dismissive of it.
Like the UK which is about to send a comedian to prison for teaching his joke Nazi jokes or France where Le Pen is about to be prosecuted for sharing pictures of what ISIS does to remind me people to oppose any measure that lets jihad into France?
Someone who has sex for their job.
Like a construction worker does construction for their job.
How stupid can you be?
Nope. They're in charge at Google.
In Denmark there is a system called NemID (EasyID, if you want to translate it) which is used for ALL COMMUNICATION with the authorities, banks, etc.
And as of 2018 they're phasing out the physical one-time pads in favor of a smart phone app. I assure you, using a smart phone is something Danish citizens are very soon FORCED to do.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
I guess if you really want to use a cloud service such as google drive, you'll want to use an app that encrypts and changes to numeric filenames.
Thank you, I came here to say this. ^^
Is Google going to forbid uploading/downloading encrypted (by a non-Google encryption algorithm they have no keys for) numerically-named files on GD now?
It's time for Alphabet and Twitter/FB to go quietly into that good night. They are enemies of individual liberty.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
So technically she was in violation of GDrive TOS for 5 and a half years then.
I'm no friend of Google snooping in your data that you entrusted them with, but with the threat of criminal prosecution for NOT doing it, I can't blame them for following the laws.
bickerdyke
No, it's about moral busybodies inflicting their whims on others as a power trip... And no side has a monopoly on that. Third wave feminists, social justice fanatics, Google/Twitter, evangelicals, Republicans, etc... All of them desperately want to tell me who I can be, what I can say, who I can fuck, what I can read, what I can see, and so on.
This is why the Constitution and Bill of Rights are so critically important to uphold. It isn't just old paper. It's an enumeration of our freedom and protections, which would be stolen and destroyed by those listed above if we let them.
Because it's safer than walking next to them?
Or maybe because some people really care about good art and cosplay is excellent art.
One LARP group in Britain had to close down because too many members were hired by film studios to work on costuming.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
1) This implies that Google takes a look at EVERYTHING that goes on Google Drive, otherwise how did they know it was porn? This may be obvious to some but there is a difference between secure and private. Secure means no third party can see your stuff, private means the storage provider doesn't get to look.
2) It is just plain wrong that the file would disappear. Block sharing and notify the user that the file should be removed.
3) If terms of service say don't do something then don't do it.
I guess if you really want to use a cloud service such as google drive, you'll want to use an app that encrypts and changes to numeric filenames.
I can see the headlines now: "Tech Site Solves Dirty Download Dillemma, Advises Pornographers to Zip It Up"
Nothing posted to
Between projects like IPFS and Sia, I suspect Drive will be under pressure for cost alone.
I wouldn't be surprised if the US government passed laws, Acts, or regulations to make those illegal if they began to receive serious adoption numbers among the US population, both to protect the politician's owners (Google, etc) and to make certain people have no way to securely communicate that government can't decrypt and read. To their way of thinking, livestock has no need for privacy or security, after all.
Hell, there's yet *another* article here on /. about the government again insisting on backdoors for encrypted smartphones after it was explained ad nauseam that there's either security or not because math.
I'm waiting to hear the first serious calls for a US 'Great Firewall'. That's where this is headed if they continue down this path.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
.... not much else to say here. This is pretty breathtaking.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
If Google support won't budge, then I would suggest they file a lawsuit against Google then, and settle the matter in court.
Google's rule about "Do not publish sexually explicit or pornographic images or videos" --- doesn't say ANYTHING against using their storage service for Private, Non-Published storage of files and selective distribution or sharing between team members.
Backup is only backup if you have it in three different locations, in at least two different formats. Cloud is only one format. Hard Drive (local), CD/DVD, Tape, are all other formats. Everything else is something less than backup. And backups are a bitch to manage, because formats become unusable. Who has a 8 inch floppy drive I can borrow?
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.