Google Drive for Old People

Am I old? I sometimes joke that I am, but I'm only 35.917 years old. To the high school kids I pass at the bus stop on my way in to work, I might be old, but in general? Not so much. That said, am I out of touch?

I ask because I refuse to use "the cloud" in general, and Google Drive in particular, at least not in any substantial way. I have a Google account, and use Drive to transfer files occasionally. It was crucial in our wedding planning, as we could share spreadsheets and other files among ourselves without using disks or USB drives or even e-mail. We wrote our entire ceremony from scratch, and Drive allowed easy collaboration between me, my wife, and my sister (who was performing the ceremony, and thus reading the whole thing).

So, for those things, I'll use it. However, the push to use Drive, Box, iCloud, or other such services as a replacement for internal storage makes me cringe.Both my phone and my tablet have micro-SD card slots that is compatible up to 128GB. 128 gigabytes! I don't want to get technical here, but that's A LOT (sorry for the tech-speak). Okay, so that's not actually all that much in terms of modern desktop/laptop computers, but it's nothing to shake a stick at, either (it's also just a bit more than the 15GB I have available through Drive). That tablet has 16GB of internal storage, the phone has twice that, or 32GB. Neither is tiny, but 128GB makes them so much bigger, and really, means I should never have to save anything to the cloud.

The problem is that Google, in its infinite wisdom has decided that it doesn't want people directly manipulating the SD Card in the expansion slot. This means that you can insert a card and view things on it, but you can't transfer data from internal storage to the SD card, even if the device wants you to. My tablet keeps telling me that the internal storage is 75% full, and that I should transfer some stuff, but when I click the button to start the transfer, it tells me I can't do it.

It's like telling someone they need to eat healthier, and then telling them they're not allowed to eat vegetables.

When I asked around about this recently, one response I got was "What's an SD card? Is that like Google Drive for old people?"

I get it. There is a push to use cloud storage for everything. If hard drives can be smaller, solid state devices, the overall computer can be smaller, lighter, and more energy-efficient (though I do wonder about the trade-off between having a larger hard drive and having to access a remote server). They don't need to have storage for all of your games and save data, photos and videos, music and other assorted files. All of that can be on the cloud. The hard drive just needs enough space for the operating system and whatever programs you're running. 

And that's great. My laptop is a beast, and it is smaller than my old one. I would love for it to be lighter, and have longer battery life. It's why I like the tablet. Super light, but can still function as a computer. I am reticent, though, to store my files "elsewhere". I like having the data in my possession. I like having off-line access to it.

That's my first issue with the cloud: it's not 100% reliable. If I have power, I can turn my computer on and access the hard drive, an external hard drive, a USB drive, or a variety of other storage options. If I can connect to the internet, I can access Drive. If I can't connect to the internet...too bad. I can hear the response: how often are you not connected? but that misses the point. It's not that I have periods of no connectivity right now, it's the idea that I might. There are times when wifi doesn't work. There are places you can't get a 3g/4g signal. Sometimes, the server goes down. It happens.

My second issue is one of security. Sure, everything's mine, and secure, and encrypted (for some services), and when I delete it, the files are gone. I think we've seen in the past couple of weeks what a load of crap that is. On top of the recent celebrity photo leak, it's been well-publicized over the last year or so that Google has no problem "reading" your e-mail. They view data sent through their service as fair game, arguing that there's no expectation of privacy when you turn your data over to a third party, which it claims is what you're doing when you use Gmail. Is Drive any different? I've not read the terms of service, but is uploading a picture to Drive any different than sending that same photo via e-mail? If they're twisting the word of law to justify scanning your e-mail, it's not a stretch to imagine they'd do the same thing to peek at your photos. 

I will never understand how people who are so serious about protecting things like their credit card numbers or other personal data can just throw stuff into the cloud with no regard for privacy. Even if we were to argue that the service in use respected their clients' privacy above all else, there's still the worry of hackers. How many SECURE sites have been hacked over the past few years? Web security software might as well be called "Maginot Line". The notion that nothing is truly deleted from a computer, while not entirely true, is true enough to give anyone pause before uploading that picture of yourself chugging eight beers at once.

Do you know what is far more secure? An SD card that I can physically remove. A USB drive I can put in my desk drawer. 


I don't know. Maybe this makes me old. I have no lawn to yell at kids to get off, so maybe this is the signifier. Maybe, I'm that old guy shaking his fist-clenched cane up at the sky and railing against this new-fangled technology. If so, then so be it. Personally, I see it more as an unwillingness to sacrifice my privacy for the sake of a modicum of convenience. If that's what being young is, I'll gladly be called old.