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A comment on How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct. Parent comment

Re:How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct by creato on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @02:04AM (#21450314)
By definition, any really effective backup (off site, offline) can't simply be modified instantly when you click a button in a web UI. The reason it takes months for backups to clear out your deleted data is that's how long it takes for the entire backup to be discarded and replaced by a new backup that reflects your deletions.

While the data is likely inaccessible forever in this case, the reason the company can't just say it's been deleted is if they actually do need to restore one of these backups, the data you deleted will come back.

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Re:How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct by jefftk on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @06:48AM (#21451500)
You can delete user data from backups much more quickly than that:

* Encrypt each user's data to a user-specific key

* Keep the key in hot replicated storage

* When you get a deletion request, delete the key

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Re:How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct by creato on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @03:58PM (#21456617)
You still need to back up the keys? How does this solve anything?

Backups aren't just about replication/redundancy, they also protect you from bugs and other sources of corrupted data.

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Re:How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct by jefftk on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @10:16PM (#21459446)
You can back up the keys in ways where it's very easy to purge them: no tapes, easy to recall and edit.
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Re:How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct by creato on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @10:34PM (#21459527)
The fact that backups can't be accessed and modified easily for a long period of time is a feature, not a bug, regardless of the actual mechanism of implementation (like tapes). That's what stops e.g. ransomware from affecting backups in addition to the primary storage.

A backup that can be edited to delete data like an encryption key instantly when the user tells it do is also a backup that can be easily lost or corrupted.

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Re:How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct by sdan on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @02:34AM (#21450426)
That's a reasonable reason for my data to be on their servers. However, what validates that they actually do it?
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