Mother Google Wants Tidy Cubbies
December 24, 2021
Google is going to save us from our disorganized selves, whether we like it or not. TechRadar reports, “Google Drive Update Will Force You to Clean Up Your Mess of Files and Folders.” It is for our own good, really. To force users into tidying up, Drive will automatically migrate multi-location files to shortcuts, a system launched in August of last year. With the pandemic-prompted shift in remote work, use of cloud-based systems like Drive had suddenly boomed. Writer Joel Khalili tells us:
“This [shift] caused an influx in the number of documents, spreadsheets, presentations and other assets hosted in Google Drive, creating various file management and navigation issues. With the upcoming update, Google will hope to impose some measure of order on the chaos, which is only exacerbated by the opportunity for files to exist in multiple locations. According to the blog post, administrators will be notified via email a number of weeks before the migration to shortcuts takes place. Before the process begins, admins will be able to specify whether shortcuts are introduced in all possible scenarios, or only for content shared within the company’s own domain. Google Workspace users, meanwhile, will be served a banner warning of the changes, but will be required to take no further action. All existing file permissions will be preserved after the migration takes place, says Google.”
We suppose that is one way for Google to save on data storage costs. If the company can position it as a boon for users, all the better. Will it also seek a way to make us eat our vegetables? Will mom root through the data in order to make a definitive parental decision? What if some data are in violation of the Google’s terms of service? What’s the punishment? Google jail, a fine, a trial? We don’t know.
Cynthia Murrell, December 24, 2021
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