You can help! Simply follow the steps to download and run an Archive Team Warrior, and then select the Google Drive project. (You can also run the project using a Docker container using atdr.meo.ws/archiveteam/google-drive-grab as the image address.)
Additionally, people with lists of public Google Drive file URLs are encouraged to share them so they can be archived.
In order to stay up-to-date with the project and be reachable in case of an issue, project contributors are encouraged to connect and stay connected to the project discussion channel, #googlecrash on irc.hackint.org, also available through webchat.
Archiving progress statistics for this project are available on the Archive Team project tracker, and source code is available on GitHub.
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In about a week’s time, Google Drive’s Security Update for shared links will be rolling out on September 13. Google is introducing a new resource key to shared links, aiming to make link sharing more secure. This means, that in short, many links shared before September 13 will no longer function beyond that date, rendering many shared files inaccessible.
What you need to know! A few gotchas to this update:
- If any Google account has accessed a shared-link prior to September 13, they will retain full-access to said file/drive beyond that date, unless access is revoked by the owner. More on this later.
- Drive accounts can view their affected files and even opt-out of the security update altogether, if they are not a Family Link account. However this opt-out is possible not before, but after September 13, see https://support.google.com/drive/answer/10729743 for details.
- Don’t worry about your petitions getting blocked; Google Docs, Sheets and Slides are exempted from the update. To be clear, this does not mean all .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files; it only means that Google Workspace‘s native files will not be affected. Links to folders containing Docs, Sheets or Slides do not seem to be exempted either. For further details see https://support.google.com/a/answer/10685032
New Projects
On the subject of Google Drive, recall that accounts which have previously accessed a file will be able to retain access. So we at Data Horde developed a tool just for that purpose. Google-Drivac, allows you to “vaccinate” a particular Google account against a list of links.
Just log into a Google account, copy some cookies, gather a list of links you want to retain access to (either through crawling, or through maybe another account) and presto!
You can find Google-Drivac on our GitHub at https://github.com/Data-Horde/gdrivac.
In the meantime, for those hoarders among you who would prefer a hard-grab, Archive Team is working on doing just that. You can follow development on the Google Drive Warrior on #[email protected]
Last but not least, some of you might recall the panic surrounding Mediafire allegedly deleting accounts from earlier this year. While the threat had been greatly exaggerated, the scare did bring with it some innovation.
Zopolis from the Media Flare project has developed the Automatic Mediafire Link Archiver (AMLA). This is a Chrome extension which automatically records Mediafire links on websites you visit, in the background. These links are then forwarded to Ajay’s MediaFire URL Submitter public database and Archive Team who periodically grab its contents. All website activity is tracked by default, so if you’re keen on your privacy you should also restrict its permissions in the extension settings.
AMLA can be downloaded from here: https://github.com/Zopolis4/AMLA, and if you are into URL hunting be sure to visit the Media Flare Discord server.
]]>While Google states that this is a change to make link sharing more secure, it is obvious that not all users might welcome this change. The change will first roll-out to Workspaces. As an administrator, you can take action before July 23, 2021 to decide whether or not to enforce the link-change. By default admins opt-in, and their organization links will also be automatically updated. If, instead, an admin opts-out their organization’s members will be notified on July 26, 2021 to decide on whether or not they want to individually opt-out. The update will come into effect on September 13, 2021. Note that Admins can still change organization settings until the final deadline.
As a regular (free) user, you will receive the update notification July 26, at which point you may choose to opt-out before September 13, 2021. So, if you own a few files on Google Drive you made public, you should check whether you want to cancel the update, or replace all your links with the updated version. If no action has been taken, the update will be enforced on September 13, 2021, rendering some of your files inaccessible to users who haven’t accessed them prior to that date.
To learn more about the issue, you can read the blog post at https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2021/06/drive-file-link-updates.html. This update comes following a similar change to make old unlisted YouTube videos private, which you can read more about below.