Google promises fix for the spam issue in its Drive sharing system

Google plans on fixing a spam issue with its Drive sharing system.

An issue originally noted by How-To Geek discovered that the sharing system is susceptible to spam. Anyone can share files with another user as long as they have their email address, and there isn’t a way to fully remove the files from the receiver’s account.

Even after pressing the remove button, the files are actually just hidden instead of being deleted. This means the user is still getting the files, just not actively seeing them. Google also doesn’t give users a way to block someone. Even if you block their address in Gmail, it doesn’t prevent their account from popping up in Drive.

Though it’s likely not an issue for most users, a How-To Geek reader did mention that they noticed they share a folder that their ex controls and there’s no way to stop this.

😡

Four weeks ago I discovered I am still shared on a Google Drive folder of photos my abusive ex controls and is actively putting photos into.

At the same time I learned there is **no way to remove your own access from a folder you have been given view-only access to**.

— Jessica Lord (@jllord) December 27, 2018

Google told How-To Geek that they are making this fix a priority.

“For the vast majority of users, the default sharing permissions in Drive work as intended. Unfortunately, this was not the case for this user and we sincerely apologize for her experience. In light of this issue, we are evaluating changes to our spam, abuse, and blocking features that will prevent this kind of activity from taking place on Drive. In the interim, users who are experiencing similar issues can remove themselves from the folder, and the folder should not reappear in either “My Drive” or “Shared with Me” unless they revisit it.” — Google Spokesperson