Filewatch

Find your public files, before someone else does

4 followers

Find your public files, before someone else does

4 followers

Filewatch is a free tool which scans your Google Drive and displays all of the files which are publicly available (shared with anyone on the web or anyone with the link). After scanning the files, Filewatch displays a list of the files which are publicly available. You can then review them and change the sharing settings if necessary.

Launch tags:Productivity•Privacy

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It seems strange that I should allow an app into my Drive to see if my privacy settings are good enough? Or?

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8yr ago

Crowd Sound

Maker

@jeppevjensen I can appreciate that it requires a certain degree of trust to use Filewatch, but that's something in common with every third-party extension that requires access to Google Drive and there's no getting around that I'm afraid. It would be better if Google Drive offered this functionality itself, but the reason why I made Filewatch is because it doesn't and I believe that it can help people to keep their files secure. I've done as much as I can to respect the privacy and security of users when they use Filewatch. It requests the minimum possible access to your Google Drive in order to determine which files are publicly accessible and I developed it entirely as a client-side application so that no information about the files is sent to a server, it stays on your computer the entire time. If you have any suggestions for how I can provide more reassurance to users then I'd gratefully accept them, as I can appreciate the concern.

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8yr ago

@alexcason4 Hi. Yes, I understand it's quite normal for programs like this. But I couldn't find any information about what you do with the collected data. A question I would like to be answered, do you sell my data as a payment for your free service? Unfortunately, there's often no information about the use of the data collected by the apps and programs. So if I should let your program into my Drive it would require more information about the use of my data. Don't get me wrong, I think your app is a good idea and have a purpose.

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8yr ago

Crowd Sound

Maker

@jeppevjensen In addition to text on the page saying 'No information about your files is stored on the server' there is also the privacy policy which goes into further detail about what data is collected. However, If it's not clear to you then it obviously needs to be a bit more prominent, especially as it's one of the main concerns when deciding whether to use Filewatch. I'll have a think about how to improve that. Thanks for the feedback!

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8yr ago

I agree with Jeppe, your are promoting an app that is supposed to preserve your privacy, but does so in a very intrusive way (which I totally understand why) but it should be very clear as to how this app is monetized and how you handle the information you see on users drives. How do I know you don't just archive everything you find? The tiny barely visible reassurance statement below the button should be very clearly stated above along with a detailed explanation of what you do with data, what's stored, what's not, how things are monetized and if this is completely safe from the data gathering point of view.

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8yr ago

Crowd Sound

Maker

@wwgene I agree that a more detailed description of how it works would be both useful and reassuring to the user. It's something which I'll work to improve. Thanks for the feedback.

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8yr ago

Crowd Sound

Maker

@jeppevjensen @wwgene Based upon your feedback I've written an article outlining how Filewatch handles data to keep it private and secure. I've added it as a link prominently on Filewatch and it's also available to read here: https://medium.com/filewatch/how... I hope it goes some way towards reassuring you and other users with valid concerns. Let me know if you have any feedback.

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8yr ago

Like that Filewatch is fast and super simple. Regarding trusting to the service, as far as I understand, you give access only to the metadata and not the content of the files themselves, so seems quite private to me.

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8yr ago

Excellent job addressing questions about privacy and monetization. Reassured me. About to try this out.

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8yr ago

Awesome product, very easy to use and extremely useful. I assume the privacy policy has been updated in light of the concerns raised, nice to see a service that provides an actual service rather than collecting and selling data.

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8yr ago

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