Google Documents Spam: What You Need to Know

Google Documents spam can be a real nuisance, but understanding how it works can help you avoid falling victim to it.

Google Documents spam often comes in the form of unsolicited emails inviting you to view or edit documents.

These emails can come from unknown senders and may contain malicious links or attachments.

Make sure to verify the authenticity of the sender and the document before clicking on any links or opening attachments.

Google Docs spam is a real problem that many users have faced. Fifteen years after launching Google Docs and Sheets with file sharing, Google is finally adding what sounds like adequate safety controls to the feature.

Anyone with your email address can share a file with you, and a ton of spammers already have your email address. This is because Google essentially turned Drive file-sharing into email.

For years, some people in my life have been inundated with shared Google Drive files containing porn, ads, dating site scams, and malware. Google acknowledged the problem in 2019 after a How-To Geek report highlighted a woman who couldn't stop an abusive ex-husband from sharing files with her via Drive.

Google added the first file-sharing control to Drive in 2021, giving the ability to block individual users. However, this is nothing in the face of anonymous spammers that can spin up thousands of accounts in a second.

With the spam folder, Google is finally implementing the Gmail-style spam controls it needed on day one. Automatic classifiers will redirect files that Drive strongly suspects to be unwanted to the spam folder.

You can now block people in Drive, but it's still woefully inadequate. This feature allows you to block individual email addresses, which is a start, but any spammer can just create a new account and quickly circumvent this fix.

The problem is that Drive document sharing was built with no spam-management tools. Anyone who gets a hold of your email is considered an important sharer of valid documents, and there has been nothing you can do about it—until now.

The new feature will roll out to users over the next 15 days, and soon you'll be able to click the menu button next to the item and choose "block user."

Google Drive has been plagued by spam issues for years, with users receiving unwanted shared files containing malware, ads, and even porn.

Google acknowledged the problem in 2019 after a report highlighted a woman who couldn't stop her abusive ex-husband from sharing files with her via Drive.

The issue is that Drive essentially turned file-sharing into email, allowing anyone with your email address to share files with you without your consent or control.

For a long time, users had to disable Drive notifications, ignore highlighted ads at the top of their Drive account, and warn others to never click on the "shared files" folder.

Google added the first file-sharing control to Drive in 2021, giving users the ability to block individual users.

However, this was only a partial solution, as it didn't address the issue of anonymous spammers who can spin up thousands of accounts in a second.

Google is finally rolling out a spam folder to Drive, similar to Gmail's spam folder, which will automatically redirect unwanted files to the spam folder.

Users will also be able to manually move files in and out of the spam folder, and files that have resided in the spam folder for over 30 days will be permanently removed from Drive.

The spam folder is a good start, but there are still missing features, such as the ability to limit sharing to Gmail contacts and an option to turn off sharing altogether.

Google says the controls will start rolling out this month, but it's unclear when the full set of features will be available.

In the meantime, users can block individual email addresses, which is a start, but spammers can just create new accounts to circumvent this fix.

The ability to block users is a basic spam control that is long overdue, but it's still woefully inadequate for addressing the scale of the problem.

Google Drive sharing works just like email spam, allowing anyone to share files with you if they know your address, and there's no way to turn off sharing or limit it to approved users.

The lack of spam controls has made Drive sharing a free-for-all, and users have had to resort to using the service less or blocking it from sending emails and notifications.

With the new feature, blocking a user will prevent them from sharing content with you, remove all shares between you and the blocked person, and block them across several other Google services.