this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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I don't think something becomes public just because it's saved in a Google app. I consider the contents of my gdrive private and my own. There's ethics to consider that go wildly beyond "if it ends up on Google's hardrive, it automatically belongs to them".
I don't know how useful a public versus private distinction is here or in the current big tech digital age generally. The point is that if you're storing your data on google servers, you aren't entitled to (or receiving) any privacy from them or anyone they choose to sell your data and/or information to. They give you cheap storage because they're interested in mining your data; it's highly, highly profitable
Not modifying it is seriously the minimum. Doesn't really seem defendable to me.
In an abstract moral universe, you're entitled to your opinion, and I don't disagree. But you don't have a legal leg to stand on here, and this is just the modern big tech internet these days. Forewarned is forearmed though: back your stuff physically or in other ways that you have fuller control over. Because of all the bucks to be made off of harvesting user data, everyone wants to push you to the cloud
I know very well just how powerful google is. I'm not saying it's illegal, I'm saying it's a dick move and isn't defendable. They are behaving like shit and we should be vocal about it, even if they do own us.
I agree