Is google drive secure and private? Any alternate to Google Drive?

Guddu2k17

Junior Member
Dec 18, 2017
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Hi, I will be using google drive for mostly my work purpose. And I do have two step verification ON and I was just wondering that is google drive secure and private for photos, notes, and other important things? Can anyone or the employees at Google look at my personal photos and files, work files and folders, and other important data?

And is there any alternate thing to google drive which will be completely secure and private where we can store any files, folders, photos etc for smooth personal and work purpose?


Thanks in advance,
Guddu2k17
 

Guddu2k17

Junior Member
Dec 18, 2017
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Well, password protect your content, and they can't look at it.
Use winrar or 7zip or whatever.

Nothing on the cloud is completely secure & private.
Hey, thanks for the reply. You mean password protect the files and folder in windows or in the cloud? I have never used cloud before and I don't know if it can be done or not. This will be my first time. But yeah if you mean windows, umm can I not get one of those folder lock softwares?

I was thinking of google drive because it is like a big room where different types of things, in this context, different types of files and folders would be stored which provides smooth work experience.

So, what will be the best and effective approach in this situation?
 

urvile

Golden Member
Aug 3, 2017
1,575
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basically what members said previously if someone else owns the server then it aint private.

Caveat: encrypt, encrypt, encrypt!
 
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Guddu2k17

Junior Member
Dec 18, 2017
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basically what members said previously if someone else owns the server then it aint private.

Caveat: encrypt, encrypt, encrypt!

Thanks, so if I encrypt a doc file and put a good password and then upload to google drive and similarly I do the same with all of my files and folders, I am completely safe from anyone including employees at google right? Even if anyone gets in touch with my file, he/she will require the pass to open it? I have never done encryption hence don't have knowledge about it.
 

AMDisTheBEST

Senior member
Dec 17, 2015
682
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You gotta encrypt your files when uploading to the cloud. Some services like mega(which gives you 50gb storage free btw) does this by default but I still would encrypt files myself because I am paranoid about hackers.(it ain’t that difficult to hack because I had done it myself) Check out my encryption software if you are looking for an encryption tool, it uses AES encryption which is robust enough (United States government uses it)
https://github.com/GAO23/Chain_Encryption
 

Elixer

Lifer
May 7, 2002
10,376
762
126
Hey, thanks for the reply. You mean password protect the files and folder in windows or in the cloud? I have never used cloud before and I don't know if it can be done or not. This will be my first time. But yeah if you mean windows, umm can I not get one of those folder lock softwares?

I was thinking of google drive because it is like a big room where different types of things, in this context, different types of files and folders would be stored which provides smooth work experience.

So, what will be the best and effective approach in this situation?
You can test right now.
Download 7zip (free), right click on the file you want, select "add to archive", a dialog will pop up and it will look like this
7z_Encrypt.jpg

Then write a phrase, something you can remember, and click OK, and done.

You can do this to ANY file you want, or any folder. Make it harder to guess what is in it by checking the "Encrypt file names" option shown above.

Now, upload whateverFile.7z to the cloud, and it will be secure, unless they guess your pass phrase, or brute force crack it (possible, but, that takes a long time especially if you used a long phrase. Something at least 20-30 chars is plenty. Stupid example: "My dog ate MY laptop in 1904!" (case sensitive). Now, I dunno about you, but, I would remember that. :)
 
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Guddu2k17

Junior Member
Dec 18, 2017
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You can test right now.
Download 7zip (free), right click on the file you want, select "add to archive", a dialog will pop up and it will look like this
7z_Encrypt.jpg

Then write a phrase, something you can remember, and click OK, and done.

You can do this to ANY file you want, or any folder. Make it harder to guess what is in it by checking the "Encrypt file names" option shown above.

Now, upload whateverFile.7z to the cloud, and it will be secure, unless they guess your pass phrase, or brute force crack it (possible, but, that takes a long time especially if you used a long phrase. Something at least 20-30 chars is plenty. Stupid example: "My dog ate MY laptop in 1904!" (case sensitive). Now, I dunno about you, but, I would remember that. :)

"My dog ate MY laptop in 1904!" Nice idea for a uncommon password haha. I will make similar ones like that. Thank you! :D

One more thing, sometimes I would like to directly encrypt a notepad file i.e., write something in the notepad and encrypt that so that if anyone wants to open the notepad document, he/she is prompted for the password. 7-Zip always archives the files and is good for multiple files but what to use for directly encrypting a text-based document file?
 

Elixer

Lifer
May 7, 2002
10,376
762
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Hmm, so, you are looking for a way to encrypt something automatically?
In that case, I would suggest to use Notepad++ (free) with the nppcrypt plugin. https://github.com/jeanpaulrichter/nppcrypt#faq

I personally don't have a need for such things, but, that should do what you want.
If you don't know the password, and you try to open it up, it will look like gibberish.
(Of course, the issue here is, that people would need to install Notepad++ and nppcrypt to decrypt it).
 
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Guddu2k17

Junior Member
Dec 18, 2017
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Hmm, so, you are looking for a way to encrypt something automatically?
In that case, I would suggest to use Notepad++ (free) with the nppcrypt plugin. https://github.com/jeanpaulrichter/nppcrypt#faq

I personally don't have a need for such things, but, that should do what you want.
If you don't know the password, and you try to open it up, it will look like gibberish.
(Of course, the issue here is, that people would need to install Notepad++ and nppcrypt to decrypt it).
That seems a bit of an headache to me haha coz I'm a newbie. So, I would go with 7-Zip encryption.

One more thing, is the inbuilt encryption in ms word doc file strong like 7-zip's encryption?
 

Alpha One Seven

Golden Member
Sep 11, 2017
1,098
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Hi, I will be using google drive for mostly my work purpose. And I do have two step verification ON and I was just wondering that is google drive secure and private for photos, notes, and other important things? Can anyone or the employees at Google look at my personal photos and files, work files and folders, and other important data?

And is there any alternate thing to google drive which will be completely secure and private where we can store any files, folders, photos etc for smooth personal and work purpose?


Thanks in advance,
Guddu2k17
If you want secure and private, avoid using the internet.
 

Mike64

Platinum Member
Apr 22, 2011
2,108
101
91
If you want secure and private, avoid using the internet.
Well, I'd certainly agree that "if you want 'absolutely' secure and private, don't use the Internet", but unless you're worried about someone (conceivably) obtaining access to information that could send you to jail or trade secrets that could cost you serious $$$ if they became public, good encryption should be enough. It's not "completely safe" in the OP's own words, but I suspect the OP is using that phrase loosely rather than literally. After all, as long as there are things like Sodium Pentothal, tire irons, and car batteries in the world, and less and lesser pleasant people (as applicable) willing to use them:(, no information can really be said to be "completely safe", even if you stay off the Internet (or for that matter The Grid) and never write anything down...;)
 
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Thebobo

Lifer
Jun 19, 2006
18,592
7,673
136
The Fed gov agency I am with uses google mail and drive ect. There are some restrictions with sharing attachments but thats about it. Nice thing is I can do all my telework with google at home on my home PC with email and drive files. Or anywhere I go.
 
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Elixer

Lifer
May 7, 2002
10,376
762
126
The Fed gov agency I am with uses google mail and drive ect. There are some restrictions with sharing attachments but that about it. Nice thing is I can do all my telework with google at home on my home PC with email and drive files. Or anywhere I go.

While it depends on the agency, if you have any sort of classified material, and if you have A/V software installed, it will upload those to the master server to "analyze" it later.
That is exactly what Kaspersky is accused of doing.
 

PliotronX

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 1999
8,883
107
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I like sync.com as its basis for creation was security and offers encryption and password protection and the sync client works very well. Mega.co also encrypts by default I believe. Both sites require modern browsers to decrypt (in memory). I am a fan of both!