Google Docs documents again lost privacy

Who stores their passwords on the Google Docs service may begin to worry, because there again occurred a “data leak”, that is, private user files accidentally ended up in “partially open” access. More precisely, they became available without the knowledge of the author for those users for whom the author or co-author had previously opened other documents. The error occurred if the user selected a group of files and changed access rights for them. In this case, for other text documents and presentations (but not for spreadsheets), access rights changed unauthorized.

The bug reportedly affected less than 0.05% of the total number of files stored on servers. The developers have already identified and fixed the error. Letters explaining the situation were sent to all the victims.

To prevent the consequences of loss of privacy, Google launched an automatic process to block access to all “partially shared” files on all accounts that Google seemed to suffer from a bug. If your access rights are nullified by mistake in your documents, then you need to reinstall them.

Such bugs are like a balm for the soul of those users who are still afraid to store files on network services. Many, for no reason, experience a subconscious feeling that data on their home PC is more secure than on Google’s servers. This phobia of online storage is akin to fear of flying on an airplane, although, as you know, an airplane is a much safer mode of transport than a car. However, people are listening to the news about air crashes with attention, because this information is fully correlated with their unconscious fears, and they do not pay any attention to the daily news about hundreds of deaths on highways.

A daily stream about thefts of laptops, personal computers and reading information from old HDDs is not able to convince convinced paranoid people, but they will remember such a glitch in Google Docs for a long time and will retell it to everyone they know, possibly for many years to come. It's all about psychology.

via TechCrunch