Google Drive will soon stop you from sharing files that violate its terms of service.

Google Drive will begin monitoring file content and preventing file sharing that violates the terms of service.

Cloud storage is extremely useful. You can drag and drop files there and sync them across all your devices, and share them with others very quickly. That being said, it looks like very soon Google will start “controlling “the files you share, and in particular files that, according to its algorithms, would violate the terms of use of its service.

Google Drive will begin to monitor the contents of the files.

In a post published on its blog, Google explains that whenever a file is found not to comply with its terms of use or applicable policies, its use may be restricted. The corresponding file will be explicitly marked, with a visual indication next to its name, and when a file is so restricted, users will no longer be able to share it. The system will also apply this restriction retroactively to those with whom you have already shared the specified file.

and prevent sharing of files that violate the terms of use

According to a statement from Google, “Google Drive content owners will now receive an email informing them that a restriction has been put in place and how they can request a deeper review if they believe it was a mistake. For content on shared drives, the person responsible for the shared drive will be notified.”

Google points out that these controls have been put in place to prevent possible abuse of its services, some people use Google Drive to host illegal content such as malware, pornographic files, etc. Once again, this is good on paper, but let’s see how everything goes really. If the detection is not accurate enough and many of your files are blocked by mistake, it can affect the entire Google Drive.

Google also explains on its blog that users will have a special system to request in-depth analysis if they believe a file has been restricted in error. It is not currently known how long this analysis will take, but it is suspected that it could be problematic in certain situations.