Google locks users out of their legitimate documents ...
According to published reports, a number of Google Docs users were locked out of their documents as Google’s automated surveillance system flagged the content as “inappropriate.”
Of course, Google was quick to respond …
“This morning, we made a code push that incorrectly flagged a small percentage of Google Docs as abusive, which caused those documents to be automatically blocked. A fix is in place and all users should have full access to their docs. Protecting users from viruses, malware, and other abusive content is central to user safety. We apologize for the disruption and will put processes in place to prevent this from happening again.”
You gave Google the power to scan your documents, and possibly use the content for their own unstated purposes …
"Your Content in our Services"
"Some of our Services allow you to upload, submit, store, send or receive content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours."
"When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.
The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services."
"Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored." <Google: Terms of Service: Privacy>
All of which begs the question: how much control do you have over the material you submit, process, and store in clouds belonging to Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle,IBM, HP, and others, especially those foreign-based clouds like Alibaba based in China? Should you store proprietary company documents containing non-public information, medical information, or other information belonging to third parties? Will you be 100% responsible to the government and others for any data breach without the right to recover damages from the cloud vendor – especially if the service is subsidized by advertising?
You may wish to think twice before trading convenience and collaboration for security and privacy. And, you may always wish to have a copy of your important data on your own local machine.
Think in terms of Safety, Security, Resiliency, Redundancy, and the Sovereignty of where your data may be stored -- far away from the reaches of the American legal system and in the hands of foreign states who sponsor the theft of intellectual property to advance their own political, military, and commercial interests.