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It was a solution. Google Drive was great until they turned user/customer hostile. Arguably, no one could really have seen this coming, because this doesn't eve

It was a solution. Google Drive was great until they turned user/customer hostile. Arguably, no one could really have seen this coming, because this doesn't even seem to make business sense. Google are seemingly acting against the reputation of their own services.

vorpalhex 4y ago
Google (and their ilk) are risk adverse. Is it legal to keep a list of electoral candidates and their public info? Yes. Could it be disinformation? It could. Would that be harmful to Google to have Google Sheets be used to distribute? Yes. Does the risk of it being bad outweigh the benefit of keeping legal content? Yes, strongly, and it *always* will. It is always in Google's interest to be as risk adverse as possible. They always will be. (This applies to all clouds too)
- jfoster 4y ago
  > Would that be harmful to Google to have Google Sheets be used to distribute? Yes. If it's a private file (not shared), the question doesn't even make sense. Some degree of control might make sense for 100% publicly shared content on Google Drive, but how does it make any sense that they are cutting off access for the owner of the content?
  - vorpalhex 4y ago
    Why risk it, if you're Google?
    - jfoster 4y ago
      Because part of being big & successful if you're Google involves operating a business. If your approach to everything is "why risk it?" then you eventually just choose to shut everything down.
      - vorpalhex 4y ago
        I mean that is literally what Google has been doing.
vinyl7 4y ago
> Arguably, no one could really have seen this coming Maybe 15 years ago when all this was new....but it's been pretty obvious that this was the course of things over the last 6-7 years. It makes business sense when there is no competition.
allturtles 4y ago
It does make business sense. Drive is facing serious abuse problems. See for example this article [0] for the other side of this coin. Google is trying to come up with automated solutions for shutting down 'abusive' items. The OP is an example of the automated solutions not working that well. [0]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/google-is-finally-doing-something-about-google-drive-spam/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/google-is-finally-do...
- jfoster 4y ago
  You are conflating spam from 3rd parties with having a private file that Google thinks they need to block you from accessing. It is 100% possible (and not even difficult) for Google to prevent me from receiving spam from other Google Drive users whilst also allowing me to access my own Google Drive files.
  - allturtles 4y ago
    I suspect OP has not really lost access to their own files. Per the blog post about this system [0], "When it’s restricted, you may see a flag next to the filename, you won’t be able to share it, and your file will no longer be publicly accessible, even to people who have the link." My guess is OP has multiple accounts, created this file on account A, and can no longer access the file while logged in as account B, so it seems to be "removed from Drive." But I could be wrong, in which case I agree with you, this doesn't make sense as an anti-spam measure. https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2021/12/abuse-notification-emails-google-drive.html https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2021/12/abuse-notifi...

vorpalhex 4y ago

Google (and their ilk) are risk adverse. Is it legal to keep a list of electoral candidates and their public info? Yes. Could it be disinformation? It could. Would that be harmful to Google to have Google Sheets be used to distribute? Yes. Does the risk of it being bad outweigh the benefit of keeping legal content? Yes, strongly, and it *always* will. It is always in Google's interest to be as risk adverse as possible. They always will be. (This applies to all clouds too)

jfoster 4y ago
> Would that be harmful to Google to have Google Sheets be used to distribute? Yes. If it's a private file (not shared), the question doesn't even make sense. Some degree of control might make sense for 100% publicly shared content on Google Drive, but how does it make any sense that they are cutting off access for the owner of the content?
- vorpalhex 4y ago
  Why risk it, if you're Google?
  - jfoster 4y ago
    Because part of being big & successful if you're Google involves operating a business. If your approach to everything is "why risk it?" then you eventually just choose to shut everything down.
    - vorpalhex 4y ago
      I mean that is literally what Google has been doing.

vinyl7 4y ago

> Arguably, no one could really have seen this coming Maybe 15 years ago when all this was new....but it's been pretty obvious that this was the course of things over the last 6-7 years. It makes business sense when there is no competition.

allturtles 4y ago

It does make business sense. Drive is facing serious abuse problems. See for example this article [0] for the other side of this coin. Google is trying to come up with automated solutions for shutting down 'abusive' items. The OP is an example of the automated solutions not working that well. [0]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/google-is-finally-doing-something-about-google-drive-spam/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/google-is-finally-do...

jfoster 4y ago
You are conflating spam from 3rd parties with having a private file that Google thinks they need to block you from accessing. It is 100% possible (and not even difficult) for Google to prevent me from receiving spam from other Google Drive users whilst also allowing me to access my own Google Drive files.
- allturtles 4y ago
  I suspect OP has not really lost access to their own files. Per the blog post about this system [0], "When it’s restricted, you may see a flag next to the filename, you won’t be able to share it, and your file will no longer be publicly accessible, even to people who have the link." My guess is OP has multiple accounts, created this file on account A, and can no longer access the file while logged in as account B, so it seems to be "removed from Drive." But I could be wrong, in which case I agree with you, this doesn't make sense as an anti-spam measure. https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2021/12/abuse-notification-emails-google-drive.html https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2021/12/abuse-notifi...