I'm not sure how this will "make PCs history", unless Google plans to outlaw having your data anywhere else but on their servers. If you don't like the privacy implications of giving Google your data, then don't use the service. Personally, I don't plan to--I want my data on my own machines, and nowhere else.
If Google does have a GDrive project, I'd bet they don't consider it a means to "make PCs history". I'd bet they probably just want to offer a service that users want to use; therefore increasing use of their other products and selling more ads.
Does it matter that Google can be subpoenaed at any time to hand over all your data to the American government?
I am not a lawyer, but this seems out of sync - I imagine the process for getting a warrant and a subpoena are different (the latter being easier). Whatever the legal reasoning was for protecting the letters I store in my home should also apply to my e-mails in Google's database, no?
I have no idea how many subpoenas Google gets per day but my guess is that they get a fair bit of them. I also don't know how they respond to them but I'd wager that they comply with vast majority of them. What I'd like to know is how Google deals with out-of-US subpoenas. Do they comply?
I think you could argue that, due to Google File System's (GFS) distributed nature, you could request a subpoena from a local judge in any country in which Google has a data center because Google would have to prove that a chunk of data belonging to someone is not hosted in that country. That's very hard ot disprove since I doubt that Google keeps historical track of their chunks. The way GFS works, a master keeps tracks of chunks but it doesn't keep a history of where each chunk was. So a clever lawyer could try to subpoena anyone's account given that Google has a data center in their country.
For example, Google has a data center in UK. Could US person's account, be subjected to a UK issued subpoena if a lawyer uses the logic I described above? Maybe.. there's no way to prove that a chunk of your data is not hosted in UK.
Distributed systems ("cloud") are a privacy nightmare waiting to happen, and I think that EU privacy commission will tackle this issue at some point. "Cloud" computing seems to be illegal (to a certain degree, in strong-privacy countries like Germany).
[+] [-] lunchbox|17 years ago|reply
...catch my drift?
[+] [-] wmf|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peterd|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] enomar|17 years ago|reply
If Google does have a GDrive project, I'd bet they don't consider it a means to "make PCs history". I'd bet they probably just want to offer a service that users want to use; therefore increasing use of their other products and selling more ads.
[+] [-] andreyf|17 years ago|reply
I am not a lawyer, but this seems out of sync - I imagine the process for getting a warrant and a subpoena are different (the latter being easier). Whatever the legal reasoning was for protecting the letters I store in my home should also apply to my e-mails in Google's database, no?
Anyone more knowledgeable care to elucidate?
[+] [-] nickb|17 years ago|reply
I think you could argue that, due to Google File System's (GFS) distributed nature, you could request a subpoena from a local judge in any country in which Google has a data center because Google would have to prove that a chunk of data belonging to someone is not hosted in that country. That's very hard ot disprove since I doubt that Google keeps historical track of their chunks. The way GFS works, a master keeps tracks of chunks but it doesn't keep a history of where each chunk was. So a clever lawyer could try to subpoena anyone's account given that Google has a data center in their country.
For example, Google has a data center in UK. Could US person's account, be subjected to a UK issued subpoena if a lawyer uses the logic I described above? Maybe.. there's no way to prove that a chunk of your data is not hosted in UK.
Distributed systems ("cloud") are a privacy nightmare waiting to happen, and I think that EU privacy commission will tackle this issue at some point. "Cloud" computing seems to be illegal (to a certain degree, in strong-privacy countries like Germany).
More info here: http://www.jroller.com/MasterMark/entry/google_teh_evil_clou...
[+] [-] anamax|17 years ago|reply
What do you think will happen if Google decides to give your letters to a govt, perhaps because Google believes that you're evil?
How much effort do you think that Google will expend on your behalf?
[+] [-] wmf|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pclark|17 years ago|reply