Google Drive Will Soon Back Up Your Entire Computer (theverge.com) 188
An anonymous reader shares a report: Google is turning Drive into a much more robust backup tool. Soon, instead of files having to live inside of the Drive folder, Google will be able to monitor and backup files inside of any folder you point it to. That can include your desktop, your entire documents folder, or other more specific locations. The backup feature will come out later this month, on June 28th, in the form of a new app called Backup and Sync. In some other news, Box announced on Wednesday desktop apps for its storage service.
I could use this! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is something I could use every day...when pointed to reverse encFS mounts, that is ;-)
Then... (Score:5, Interesting)
...they will examine it all for clues to provide targeted advertising.
Next will be looking for hate speech and porn and reporting it to the authorities.
No thanks.
Re:Then... (Score:4, Funny)
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For some unknown reason, after backing up my "personal data" drive to Google, I started to get a lot of equestrian advertising.
Well, it probably found the MedFet stash and misinterpreted the usage of the Stirrups.
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Meh. Encrypt stuff, put it in the directory.
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Which is not especially convenient when you want to use those files.
When google drive supports encryption seamlessly WITHOUT keeping the keys themselves then I'll gladly give them hard drive images. Granted that makes using their storage tool much less useful to THEM. (which is kind of the point)
We're actually going through something very similar at work right now. We want to use cloud based storage and distribution of files, but need to be able to (more or less seamlessly) encrypt ourselves and not give
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truecrypt, tinfoil hats may be needed.
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We're actually going through something very similar at work right now.
If you've not found https://www.crashplan.com/ [crashplan.com] yet, you might wanna check them out. They have BYOK options.
Not associated with them, just evaluated them a couple years back for a similar project.
Min
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SpiderOak
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take a look at https://spideroak.com/ [spideroak.com] they claim zero knowledge
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Or go with the easier solution of just not using it.
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So to have Google backup all my computer data? No thanks.
Google cannot "backup" your data.
"Backup" is a noun. You do a backup. Do do not backup something.
"Back up" is the verb you want. You back up something. Google backs up all your computer data.
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So to have Google backup all my computer data? No thanks.
Google cannot "backup" your data.
"Backup" is a noun. You do a backup. Do do not backup something.
"Back up" is the verb you want. You back up something. Google backs up all your computer data.
But Google CAN be pedantic. And you can be wrong.
you can call for backup to back you up (extended from a military sense).
Technically, the verb should be phrasal verb back up, with a space, and the noun back-up. This is because up is a function word so it can't really be combined.
If you consider the past tense of such a verb, have you backed up your files?, I think it becomes clear that there must be a phrasal verb at play here - unless people do actually say 'have you "backupped" your files?
So please dismou
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But Google CAN be pedantic. And you can be wrong.
Except that nothing I said above was wrong.
you can call for backup to back you up (extended from a military sense).
Correct. That doesn't contradict anything I said. The noun is backup and the verb is back up.
So please dismount from that overly high horse.
Nothing overly high about it.
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except the part about backup is accepted language but not technically correct it should be back-up or we should consider backupped correct (which it isn't therefore backup isn't therefore you are ok with language being bastardised and shouldn't try to be a language nazi)
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Their algorithm is flawed though. I got the same thing and mine was donkey porn, not horses.
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they were just anticipating your next evolutionary phase from med size doney cock to full on horse cock.
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That's why he's pointing it at encrypted data (reverse encFS mounts).
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...they will examine it all for clues to provide targeted advertising.
Next will be looking for hate speech and porn and reporting it to the authorities.
That was my first thought: They'll index it & update your advertising on searches. Of course, you could always point it to an encrypted backup file and have it back that up for you...
Boris says (Score:3)
Natasha: "Well, why don't we just ask them to give it to us?"
Boris: "You think that would work?"
Natasha (long pause): "We could say 'please'."
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>> Google Drive Will Soon Back Up Your Entire Computer
No. Thanks.
I got back up already.
Without publishing everything.
No. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, no it won't.
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I have a feeling they wouldn't appreciate terabytes from everybody. Since this would only be acceptable with encryption on the client side they couldn't even deduplicate.
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Since this would only be acceptable with encryption on the client side they couldn't even deduplicate.
Why not? An encrypted blob of data looks pretty much like an unencrypted blob of data, the deduplication service shouldn't need to know one from the other.
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If you are not salting and/or using different keys, you are encrypting it wrong.
No thanks... (Score:2)
Re:No thanks... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Offsite backups can be very useful. Maybe you don't push everything offsite but there's probably a class of data you'd like to know will survive when something happens to your freenas.
True, but you don't need the cloud to do that.
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What happens when your device goes bad? Sounds like you lose all your data, AND all your backups simultaneously?
File server has a RAIDZ2 (RAID6) configuration, so I would have to lose three hard drives at the same time to lose data. A nightly cron job rsync the data to a spare hard on my Red Hat Linux box. Critical data is burned to DVD for offsite storage.
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RAID is overkill and over complicates recoveries.
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Or one raid controller goes bad
FreeNAS doesn't use RAID controllers. Depending on the controller card, you will need to turn off the RAID functionality or flash a different firmware image. I'm using the SATA ports off of my motherboard. Someday I might get a SAS card since my case can hold an additional eight hard drives.
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More precisely, FreeNAS can use RAID controllers, but the docs expressly and strenuously discourage their use. ZFS wants direct access to the bare drives so that it can manage block allocation and error recovery itself.
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Setting up auto-pilot offsite backups is important, if you care about your data.
What I care about doesn't need to live 24/7 on the Internet.
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Given the options available to you, suggesting that you're okay not backing things up automatically because "I'm scared of the internet" simply says that you don't consider your time to be all that valuable, and you're okay with losing days, weeks, or months worth of data because of your fears.
I made a decision to remove my data from the Internet because hackers can't steal what isn't easily available to them. The last time I lost data to two hard drives failing at the same time was over 15 years ago. My home has never been broken into, burned or flooded. If something catastrophic did happen to my home, my data would be the least of my problems.
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If something catastrophic did happen to my home, my data would be the least of my problems.
That's rather naive. If something catastrophic happened to your home, then once you were all recovered from that (maybe a year or two), you're going to be in a world of hurt about your data. You'll care at some point. Best to maintain offsite backups as well as onsite backups.
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a person like you, with a complete waste of an existence. that's why you responded the way you did. normal people who don't have your brain disease have a shitload of things recorder in their life that are very valuable.
This may be hard to fathom... Some of us are old enough to have pre-digital lives recorded by analog technology like film cameras and printed pictures on dead trees from film negatives. Fireproof boxes work well for storing pictures and negatives. And, being older, we don't have every little detail of our lives scattered all over the Internet for the entire world to see. Some of us still value what little privacy we still have.
Keep on speculating about my private life. You obviously have nothing better to d
Linux Support Still Coming Soon. (Score:1)
Really, any year now.
Nice try, NSA... (Score:5, Funny)
Privacy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wish such thoughts were tin-foil conspiracy type things.
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Oh just stop with that nonsense! If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.
Re:Privacy? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. -- Richelieu
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Your data will actually be parsed, stored, collated, and be made available to Google's targeted marketing AI to maximize revenue.
The government won't get ahold of the data until they get a secret warrant from a secret court, and _then_ Google will roll over.
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Wonder how much of your data will be parsed, stored, collated and available to the IRS, NSA and others at their discretion?
I would suggest encryption then. At least for the files that are sensitive. I have a dropbox account that I use extensively to transfer stuff between all my devices but there is no way I'd put any plain text document in there without encrypting it first. Been using veracrypt. Works for me but there's always bcrypt which is a good option of you're on Linux.
Backing up important data (Score:5, Funny)
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Actually, if google is smart (and they usually are) they would de-dupe on a massive scale...while still replicating multiple copies for speed/redundancy.
That vastly lowers their required storage (oddly enough you aren't the only one with biggestboobz.mp4) and lets them continue offering more 'space' that doesn't cost them nearly as much as it looks like it would.
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I used SugarSync for a while and it must have been deduping because if I copied a widely available .ISO into my folder it would often immediately upload and begin downloading on other synchronized computers.
I was always kind of curious what their global dedupe ratio was.
This behavior is not something I have seen Dropbox do.
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Trolling aside, if you don't encrypt and a certain file gets flagged as kiddie-pron then it's extremely simple for google to hash files and look to see who else also has that illegal file.
It certainly simplifies warrantless searching if you upload all your files to a company that specializes in...search.
Considering what Amazon did earlier this month... (Score:2)
I don't think Google wants to get into the business of saving crap for nothing (or pennies).
For reference: https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]
Great, let's give our lives to Google (Score:2)
Hell No! (Score:2)
Does this come with already baked in support for NSA prism selectors, too?
Android first, maybe? (Score:4, Interesting)
So, um, maybe Google could actually roll this out to android first so that users have a proper full device backup. Just an idea?
Also, Yay, now both Microsoft & Google get all may data.
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My android devices are currently backing themselves up to Google somehow, and I've restored the entire phone from backup with almost no problem. There were only a few apps I had that didn't support this, causing me to have to reconfigure them or transfer settings another way.
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Google already backs up Android devices, and has done so for several years now. When you buy a new Android phone, one of the setup prompts asks you if you want to enable backup for your phone. I've done so, and been able to move from one phone to another, taking nearly all my data with me. It even backs up most of the installed apps.
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My understanding is that, yes, Android does have a mechanism for apps to back their data up (and restore that data to a new device, etc), but it is not a system wide "full" backup of the device. In essence, it's the "nearly" part that is annoying.
I would like both, a full device backup snapshot - the os, the temp files, the apps, etc, and, the app specific backups as well.
Any folder? (Score:4, Funny)
Google will be able to monitor and backup files inside of any folder you point it to.
Even /dev/urandom?
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If your copy is an exact replacement for mine, something's very wrong.
Versioning? (Score:3)
Putting aside the notion of google and privacy issues, current google drive doesn't do file versioning. That, alone, tanks the notion of using it for "backups", although it's a pretty convenient file sharing tool.
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Turns out I was wrong; google drive does keep versions, you just have to use their web interface.
However, Mozy is overly expensive and complex. I use backblaze. It's 5 bucks per computer per month...period.
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It's a backup software (been in 'beta' for years, but it works) that can use all sorts of backends, gDrive included. Encryption support (privacy issues no more), versioning support, multiple backup sets, scheduling, etc.
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Ha! What's wrong with it is apparently I've never actually used the web interface.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
I would like it to back up /dev/random. (Score:2)
All the better to surveil you with, my dear! (Score:2)
s/will soon/will soon offer to/ (Score:2)
FTFY
MS (Score:2)
Have we learned nothing over the years? (Score:2)
Holy shit, it's like we've forgotten about the major privacy implications of the first version of this: Google Desktop [wikipedia.org]
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Won't work. (Score:3)
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No it won't (Score:2)
A cloud service run by an advertising company backing up my computer?
Like hell it will.
"Entire" computer? (Score:2)
No. No it doesn't. When someone says "entire computer", I think "that means the entire computer" not "that means my documents". Google Drive cannot backup c:\windows\ or other locked / key files. The title of this article makes it sound like this is a full disk backup, which it's most certainly not - all they're letting you do is change the directory Google Drive syncs. ownCloud has done this for literally years.
TheVerge is supposed to be a
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Google Drive? (Score:2)
No, no it will not.
15 GB max (Score:2)
That doesn't even cover what in my Documents folder.
Oh yeah (Score:2)
"Google Drive Will Soon Back Up Your Entire Computer" ...whether you want it to or not.
NAS? NSA. (Score:2)
Competitor to Carbonite? (Score:2)
If Google plans to sell this service and have decent encryption, then it could be a good competitor for Carbonite.
No, it won't. (Score:2)
I don't trust Google Drive with any file of mine, let alone my entire computer.
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OK, so it's not useful to you. Not all services need to be just for you. I have 150Mbps up, so that changes things a bit, doesn't it? I currently use CrashPlan, but they significantly raised their fees.
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"I have 150Mbps up"
60 hours to back up my 4TB drive at that speed. I could overnight the drive itself and have it there and fully replicated multiple times over in under 24 hours.
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Um, OK. Not sure what your point is unless you find yourself continuously uploading your entire drive. I have a few gigs change per day, so not an issue for me. Been doing this for years - even on DSL it took about 30 days for the initial backup, but the connection was more than capable of keeping up with daily changes.
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I guess you've never heard of "Overnight Shipping" which has been a thing for like 30 years or so.
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I've only checked it with speedtest sites. I'm not sure how else to check it. Upstream speed is rarely my bottleneck. I've seen torrents get about that high, but honestly it's not something I think about much. If there is a specific test you'd like to see let me know and I'll run it.
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Not to mention that they only give you 15 GB of storage for free. If you want to back up your entire 2 TB hard drive, that's going to cost you $20 a month.
For that kind of money, I think that I'll just buy a 2 TB portable drive for around $100 put an encrypted backup on that, and leave it in my cubicle at work.
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Approximately 100 months with my 20GB/month connection, and it would cost me about 20 times what my laptop and hard drive cost put together.
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/Dr.Evil
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Why do you want to bake a video?
Wait, how does that even work?