Google Drive stores your files in the cloud and syncs them across all your devices. It comes with every Google account and gives you 15 GB of free storage, shared between Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos.

The real draw is Google Workspace integration. You can create and edit Docs, Sheets, and Slides directly in Drive, and multiple people can work on the same file at once. Sharing is flexible. You control who can view, comment, or edit each file.

Google encrypts files in transit and at rest, but manages the encryption keys itself. There is no end-to-end encryption on consumer plans. That means Google's systems can technically access your files. Automated scanning checks uploads for malware and policy violations.

For EU users, the main concern is jurisdiction. Google is a US company subject to the CLOUD Act, which lets US authorities request access to data stored on Google servers anywhere in the world. Free accounts do not offer EU data residency. Only paid Workspace business plans allow you to choose where your data is stored.

Worth knowing

In late 2025, Google gave its Gemini AI default access to content in Drive, Gmail, and other Workspace apps. Users can opt out, but the setting is enabled by default. A California lawsuit has challenged this change. Google states that Workspace data is not used to train its AI models, but the automatic integration with Gemini has raised questions about how personal files are processed.