rohitj - 9:20 pm on Mar 7, 2006 (gmt 0)

Let me blatantly honest--since most of you haven't held back your feelings for google. The vast majority of you have nothing on your hard drive of interest. There may be a few of you with something interesting, maybe even something that could potentially damage your reputation or life if it got into the wrong hands (think trade secrets, credit card numbers whatever). For that select few, there is no doubt that such a service isn't for you.
But for those of you concerned that google will somehow care that you have the latest porn flick, or the newest cookie you downloaded etc.,, I think you're misunderstanding their intentions and edging towards the big-brother conspiracies that are completely unfounded. Google has had access to millions--maybe even billions--of emails. If they had blackhat ways, poor ways of handling information internally, or an evil philosophy. Then it would've caught up to them--and would have been mentioned over and over again. can you think of a scenario where google sold or somehow misused an individual's info? i'm not talking the release of aggregate data here...

The other thing that I want to add is that such a board is hardly representative of the audience google is targetting. A good number of you use your computers for commercial purposes and therefore information may have a monetary value. But for people like me, I really don't put a price on the latest Mp3 i got, or a cookie I downloaded. I'm thinking that most personal users are in the same boat.

This service also wouldn't be applicable to terrorists or people who'd somehow have fear of the government. But for people like me, i'd live with the risk of having the government search my drives (online and offline) for decent storage space. Granted I hope it never happens but the risk is something I could live with. Perhaps its because i realize i have nothing of huge value or some gigantic secret..

Just some thoughts to shift this discussion to what I think is more realistic/considerate of google's main audience. something it seems like we lose sight of that.

[edited by: rohitj at 9:30 pm (utc) on Mar. 7, 2006]