Google Drive vs Dropbox | Battle of Privacy in the Cloud?

I don’t generally trust free Internet services. While I use things like Google services and a lot of social media, I always plan for those services to change or be gone. Online storage services like Dropbox, iCloud, and even YouSendIt bring the whole privacy issue to a new level as you are not just consciously posting items that your friends or the public may see but you are posting actual files. These files could be personal. They could be client files for your business. Do you know what your privacy rights are under these services? Google Drive came out today and you might be surprised what the terms of use are.

In interest of full disclosure, I’ve been a paying customer of Dropbox for about a year and have always liked their service. Just like anyone, though, I’m always looking for a better deal. Looking at Google Drive I was really interested as I would be able to get 4 times the storage for the same $10 a month. Doing my normal terms of use check I was a little bit surprised at the vague liberties that Google takes with your data. Here is what they say about your files and what they can do:

“When you upload or otherwise submit content to 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.” – Source: http://www.google.com/policies/terms/ 

Of course, the biggest problem I have with this is how vague and liberal their use statement is in that it seems you basically grant a full license to anything that is uploaded to just about any Google service, including Google Drive. This includes reproduction, creation of derivative works, and publication and per these terms, they do not have to notify you at all. Now I understand that a lot of these licenses is to cover basic functionality of things like duplicating files in Google Docs or on Google Drive. The issue to me is that it isn’t limited to just the functionality of the services and they specifically call out promotion as an acceptable use.

After looking at the Google terms of use I decided to head over to Dropbox for a refresher on their policy.

“By using our Services you provide us with information, files, and folders that you submit to Dropbox (together, “your stuff”). You retain full ownership to your stuff. We don’t claim any ownership to any of it. These Terms do not grant us any rights to your stuff or intellectual property except for the limited rights that are needed to run the Services, as explained below. We may need your permission to do things you ask us to do with your stuff, for example, hosting your files, or sharing them at your direction. This includes product features visible to you, for example, image thumbnails or document previews. It also includes design choices we make to technically administer our Services, for example, how we redundantly backup data to keep it safe. You give us the permissions we need to do those things solely to provide the Services.” – https://www.dropbox.com/terms

Do you see the difference between the two? Google has you grant the rights to almost full license without limit whereas Dropbox states that you do not grant any rights outside of what is necessary to operate the services. To me, this distinction is very important when it comes to privacy as this new world of cloud computing and hosting continues to grow and develop. When I place files onto a service that is not my own hosting and I am paying for said service, I would expect that all rights and usage for all files placed there are left with me and that the service wouldn’t have the ability to use them for anything without my expressed written permission.

So what do you think? Do the usage rights to your files change what cloud storage services you use? Have you ever looked to see what kind of usage rights you are granting?

Brad Lowrey Director of Marketing

Brad Lowrey is a dynamic marketing strategist and Director of Marketing at GreenPath Financial Wellness, where he leads initiatives in digital marketing, SEO, and content creation. With a strong background in data-driven strategies, honed through roles at Comerica Bank and Hillsdale College, Brad has significantly boosted engagement and traffic for his organizations. He combines over a decade of digital strategy experience with a deep commitment to team development and a passion for continuous learning. Outside of work, Brad cherishes time with his family, indulging in hobbies like woodworking and gardening on their hobby farm.

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