Never Store Private Details in Google Docs – Private Docs can be accessed through Public Link even after Deleting
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Google is getting on my nerves recently. First I had problems with Google Analytics and there is old news about how Google doesn’t respect your privacy or your readers’ privacy.
This is about privacy issues in Google Docs. It’s a very good feature and I have been using it for a while till now. Every Google Doc has a public link if it’s been shared but it has been found that even private docs have these public links which can be accessed even without logging in to Google network. To add it all, these documents are not deleted completely even after you remove it from the trash bin and you can still access your deleted private file through a public link. Read Scharnetzki´s line of reasoning for more.
My Suggestion to Protect your Private Data:
So, don’t ever store any private details in Google Docs and I would suggest overwriting all the private documents with some random junk value so as to override your files in Google’s server (If that’s how Google docs are stored and if it doesn’t maintain different versions based on revisions).
[...] Update(31-July): The missing reports have come back me from 28th Aug. But I am not sure about the accuracy of the reports as it has reported 50% drop in organic traffic which I believe is not true. Some others also have reported the same issue; let me know if you face the same. You might also be interested in Privacy Issues in Google Docs. [...]
That’s bad news indeed. Thanks for the heads up buddy!