Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Archiving Tips?

[S N Martin (snmartin]

Hi Tara,

Diana is spot on with the reasons provided.

Even if the folder in Google's My Drive space is owned by the "generic"
account, the files inside can still be owned by others. They will not lose
permission to move/delete/edit that file since they own the file.

However, if you have a paid (or nonprofit) domain associated with Google
and the files are placed in a Google Shared Drive, they are then "owned" by
the organization with the Shared Drive. Shared Drives are not available for
the free gmail.com accounts, though free gmail.com accounts can be given
management access to folders that are in that organization's Shared Drive
file space.

I hope that makes sense!

Stan


On Tue, Feb 25, 2025 at 4:37 PM Diana Carroll <dianaecarroll [at] gmail.com>
wrote:

> Tara asks "I'm curious about why there would be a need to transfer
> ownership of
> individual files from individual owner-creators to the group account."
>
> Three reasons come to mind immediately, all of which have been relevant at
> various times in my digital life:
>
> -- Google sometimes randomly (?) changes permissions on files so only the
> person who owns it can access it. I think it's a security feature?
>
> -- Although 99% of departures are amicable, that isn't guaranteed, and
> there are people in the world who would use things like this for nefarious
> purposes. (Sub-reason: Google accounts can be "stolen" by bad actors)
>
> -- Google accounts can be deleted, which I think (though not positive)
> would mean all files they own would be deleted. People can delete their own
> accounts, but also accounts can be shut down when someone passes away.
> There's probably other circumstances too where accounts can go away.
>
> (That said, we [Mosaic Commons] are pretty sloppy about that, by which I
> primarily mean ME, because I was a Trustee, I'm the bookkeeper, and a big
> user of Google Drive, so I'm probably the biggest culript.)
>
> Diana
>
> On Tue, Feb 25, 2025 at 3:14 PM Tara Gallen <tarabytransit [at] gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Stan,
> >
> > I'm curious about why there would be a need to transfer ownership of
> > individual files from individual owner-creators to the group account. It
> > seems like a fair bit of work and logistics; it would be helpful to know
> if
> > there are risks you've foreseen or experienced. We have old files lying
> > around that were created by former members; most of these are antiquated
> or
> > of trivial value so far. Is the concern that someone would be able to
> > delete a file they own even from a Drive to which their access has been
> > removed? (I'm very clear on the reasons why it is important for the
> Google
> > Drive itself to be owned by the organization, and not use someone's
> > personal drive.)
> >
> > Thanks kindly,
> > Tara
> > Our Urban Village Cohousing - Vancouver, BC
> > One studio unit remaining! oururbanvillage.ca
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