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Monday 9 March 2009

Google Docs Accidentally Shared Private Documents

Update: Google admitted that only 0.05% of documents were shared. Also, my opinion has changed on this matter. Initially I thought this would be a major blow to cloud computing and Google Docs, but this is the first time that I've heard of a security issue with Docs. In the desktop world, "secure" files are always being hacked, accessed by P2P file sharing, taken by hackers, and stolen along with the computer. So, I guess that cloud computing and Google Docs does still rock!!

Well, this was the nasty surprise sitting in my Gmail inbox today from the Google Docs Team:

Dear Google Docs user,

We wanted to let you know about a recent issue with your Google Docs account. We’ve identified and fixed a bug which may have caused you to share some of your documents without your knowledge. This inadvertent sharing was limited to people with whom you, or a collaborator with sharing rights, had previously shared a document. The issue only occurred if you, or a collaborator with sharing rights, selected multiple documents and presentations from the documents list and changed the sharing permissions. This issue affected documents and presentations, but not spreadsheets.

To help remedy this issue, we have used an automated process to remove collaborators and viewers from the documents that we identified as being affected. Since the impacted documents are now accessible only to you, you will need to re-share the documents manually. For your reference, we’ve listed below the documents identified as being affected.

We apologize for the inconvenience that this issue may have caused. We want to assure you that we are treating this issue with the highest priority.

The Google Docs Team


They also put a notice up on the Google Docs blog and information on the Apps Status Dashboard. For my account, it only affected 1 document and it was somewhat minor. But for others it may have been a disaster. Until Google and other vendors get these problems worked out, cloud computing growth will never reach its potential. 

4 comments:

  1. I agree, it is a scary situation, but one that isn't all that surprising. We live in an open environment where everyone's a wannabe photographer or publisher so I try and be transparent and would try not to allow a "secret-ish" document in my Google Docs inbox. It isn't any wonder that this may occur, but you are right. It's scary as a teacher to think that sharing a document could fall in the wrong hands.
    But, I also have to say that Google was honest and open immediately which was a nice refreshing change from the normal "marketing" we would expect.
    Plus, we are dealing with a BETA program after all...

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  2. Yeah, something like this was sort of expected, and yes, Google did an excellent job dealing with the problem. Thanks for your comment.

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  3. How many times has Microsoft let your personal stuff go loose before they fix it and they are still fixing it. So it is not just cloud computing - the threat is there even on the desktop computing connecting to the internet especially if you use Internet Explorer and Outlook. :-)

    But Google's threat was only affected by 0.05% unlike desktop IE bugs of M$ being affected to the 99.95% of the folks. So there is nothing to be scared of it - just bite it and get on with it.

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  4. I agree, Microsoft is brutal. The only MS product I use is XP, I am eagerly awaiting the day for the Google Operating System.

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