5 ms·

I'm pretty sure Google engineers are smart enough to detect quick workarounds that fit in a comment on Hacker News. They already have to implement such a thing

by rakoo 2y ago

I'm pretty sure Google engineers are smart enough to detect quick workarounds that fit in a comment on Hacker News. They already have to implement such a thing for finding copyrighted material in Youtube videos, so they know how to deal with mixed signals.

HenryBemis 2y ago
Or if they didn't think about this, they know do after reading this thread :)
- rakoo 2y ago
  My guess is that the very minimum they do is cut files in small blobs and analyze each one separately, so that kind of scheme (or adding random junk at the beginning or the middle or zipping it or ...) doesn't work.
Hizonner 2y ago
Encrypt the file and don't upload the key.
- glitchc 2y ago
  They block it outright, even when the purpose is innocent (sensitive documents). Tried with rar and 7-zip.
  - Hizonner 2y ago
    Wow, really? You can't store an encrypted file on Google Drive? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I am, mildly. ... so it has no utility at all, since you definitely shouldn't be storing any unencrypted files on it.
    - BXlnt2EachOther 2y ago
      That doesn't seem to be most people's experience, see sibling posts. As another data point, I have several manually-uploaded zip and 7z files of my own documents and content, both encrypted and not, and never had a problem. The majority of my Drive usage by bytes is encrypted backup pack files uploaded via API by Arq Backup or rclone. That's all worked fine for many years.
      - glitchc 2y ago
        Sorry, I may have conflated Gmail with GDrive, my bad.
        BXlnt2EachOther 2y ago
        IIRC I did get a roadblock attaching a zip file with GMail several years ago. GMail also complained about direct-attaching a locally-built, unsigned exe file to an address that I'd never corresponded with. To be fair this probably should have caused suspicion :)
  - Willish42 2y ago
    anecdotal / N=1 here, but I've uploaded standard 7z encrypted backups to personal Drive without issue
    - glitchc 2y ago
      I don't know why it didn't work then. I encrypted the file listing too.
      - Hizonner 2y ago
        Maybe they only apply it to shared files?
  - Brian_K_White 2y ago
    This is trivally disprovable. Everyone has countless encrypted files on gdrive. What do you think a keepass db is for example?
  - sushid 2y ago
    Definitely not true. Source: have .zip and .rar files in Google Drive
  - pixxel 2y ago
    Perhaps you’re on a ‘list’ for questionable content.
  - darby_nine 2y ago
    That might be an issue with rar and 7-zip specifically. RAR at least used to be very common with warez and not very common out of it—might just be a low-effort way of discouraging it. Not endorsing this, btw, I much prefer dumb pipes.
kimixa 2y ago
Or the "simple" solution is sufficient as the vast majority of users won't even use "quick workarounds that fit in a comment on Hacker News". And if the simple solution that still works most of the time is sufficient to avoid liability in the courts then it's solved the problem they were aiming at. If the more complex solution costs more in engineering time than the benefit, they're arguably obliged as a public company to not implement it. Often chasing the long tail just isn't worth it.

by rakoo 2y ago

HenryBemis 2y ago

Or if they didn't think about this, they know do after reading this thread :)

rakoo 2y ago
My guess is that the very minimum they do is cut files in small blobs and analyze each one separately, so that kind of scheme (or adding random junk at the beginning or the middle or zipping it or ...) doesn't work.

Hizonner 2y ago

Encrypt the file and don't upload the key.

glitchc 2y ago
They block it outright, even when the purpose is innocent (sensitive documents). Tried with rar and 7-zip.
- Hizonner 2y ago
  Wow, really? You can't store an encrypted file on Google Drive? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I am, mildly. ... so it has no utility at all, since you definitely shouldn't be storing any unencrypted files on it.
  - BXlnt2EachOther 2y ago
    That doesn't seem to be most people's experience, see sibling posts. As another data point, I have several manually-uploaded zip and 7z files of my own documents and content, both encrypted and not, and never had a problem. The majority of my Drive usage by bytes is encrypted backup pack files uploaded via API by Arq Backup or rclone. That's all worked fine for many years.
    - glitchc 2y ago
      Sorry, I may have conflated Gmail with GDrive, my bad.
      - BXlnt2EachOther 2y ago
        IIRC I did get a roadblock attaching a zip file with GMail several years ago. GMail also complained about direct-attaching a locally-built, unsigned exe file to an address that I'd never corresponded with. To be fair this probably should have caused suspicion :)
- Willish42 2y ago
  anecdotal / N=1 here, but I've uploaded standard 7z encrypted backups to personal Drive without issue
  - glitchc 2y ago
    I don't know why it didn't work then. I encrypted the file listing too.
    - Hizonner 2y ago
      Maybe they only apply it to shared files?
- Brian_K_White 2y ago
  This is trivally disprovable. Everyone has countless encrypted files on gdrive. What do you think a keepass db is for example?
- sushid 2y ago
  Definitely not true. Source: have .zip and .rar files in Google Drive
- pixxel 2y ago
  Perhaps you’re on a ‘list’ for questionable content.
- darby_nine 2y ago
  That might be an issue with rar and 7-zip specifically. RAR at least used to be very common with warez and not very common out of it—might just be a low-effort way of discouraging it. Not endorsing this, btw, I much prefer dumb pipes.

kimixa 2y ago

Or the "simple" solution is sufficient as the vast majority of users won't even use "quick workarounds that fit in a comment on Hacker News". And if the simple solution that still works most of the time is sufficient to avoid liability in the courts then it's solved the problem they were aiming at. If the more complex solution costs more in engineering time than the benefit, they're arguably obliged as a public company to not implement it. Often chasing the long tail just isn't worth it.