Steam Blocks Google Drive Links?

[captain]

Alright, so I get why Steam blocks certain sites like G^2^A and torrenting sites, but why Google Drive links?

As a student I'm constantly sending my writing to my friends to be able to have them critique it. After all, peer review can sometimes help a lot. It's a huge pain when I either have to edit the URL so Steam will accept it or email it to them.

Honestly I can't think of any reasons why this would even be blocked? They're just documents. It's not as if you can get a virus by opening a Google Document. Can anyone explain this to me/Have any idea why?

Actually, why is Steam blocking links in the first place? Like c'mon man are you going to start adding a censor to swear words in chats now?

[Forcen]

Google drive is the main filehost used by all these "make your own steam malware" hijackers.
They post fake screenshots with the .src extension that tries to take all your items.

And you can host any file on google drive and any document can have links to any website.

However they usually make domains that they link to first, never heard of sending links to actual google drive links to infect people.

[captain]

Originally posted by Forcen#2948:

Google drive is the main filehost used by all these "make your own steam malware" hijackers.
They post fake screenshots with the .src extension that tries to take all your items.

And you can host any file on google drive and any document can have links to any website.

However they usually make domains that they link to first, never heard of sending links to actual google drive links to infect people.

Yeah I totally understand Steam blocking fake links but they just straight up block any actual google drive links. I'd get if Google Drive forced you to download things upon opening a link but its just a file viewer?

[Forcen]

if you get the right link from google drive, the one that directlinks you to the file AND you use google chrome then the webbrowser will download the file to your PC without asking you.. One of the worst things about chrome..
Anyway that link isnt on google.com its on googleusercontent or something.

They dont have to force you anything if they convince you to download the "image" and click on it then there is no need.

Maybe they are a bit to careful who knows, may it's a mistake and they see this thread and fix it but i can definitly see this is a thing that makes it slightly harder for the malware people.

Now they actually has to buy a domain and make a website each time instead of creating free google accounts to infect people.

But if you want to send links and dont worry about this then you should use something else, steam is such a big target so they have good reason to be careful.

If you want people to peer review your documents invite them to the document and give them permissions to suggest edits, way more convenient and you can just type their email into the google thing and they get invited. No need for links then.

[captain]

Originally posted by Forcen#2948:

if you get the right link from google drive, the one that directlinks you to the file AND you use google chrome then the webbrowser will download the file to your PC without asking you.. One of the worst things about chrome..
Anyway that link isnt on google.com its on googleusercontent or something.

They dont have to force you anything if they convince you to download the "image" and click on it then there is no need.

Maybe they are a bit to careful who knows, may it's a mistake and they see this thread and fix it but i can definitly see this is a thing that makes it slightly harder for the malware people.

Now they actually has to buy a domain and make a website each time instead of creating free google accounts to infect people.

But if you want to send links and dont worry about this then you should use something else, steam is such a big target so they have good reason to be careful.

If you want people to peer review your documents invite them to the document and give them permissions to suggest edits, way more convenient and you can just type their email into the google thing and they get invited. No need for links then.

The problem with that is a lot of the people I send these documents to don't have Gmail accounts. Also, if you ask me it's WAY more convienent to just give someone a link that gives them permission to Comment on the Document rather than having to go through an entire conversation of: "Hey I gave you permissions for this thing"

Again, I totally understand why this is in place, but its a little frustrating and I'd rather just add ()'s to the URL rather than go through that entire process.

Thanks for the help and explanation by the way, really appreciate it man!

[Ðexter]

Agreed. This is really cancerous on part of Steam... I can't believe them to be that foolish to block entire Google Drive because of few malware spammers... On top of that, anyone who has 2 step verification on (everyone should have it) they can't just steal the account that easily... But it seems any other cloud services work so you'll have better luck with for example OneDrive.

And really why couldn't steam implement feature like it would not block links from people on your friend list... I don't get it. They really have to step up their game or we will start to see people changing over. Origin is becoming a very good service and it doesn't have the same stupidity going on as Steam has...