[davidf18]

User education is not the way to solve these sorts of problems. The proper way to solve the problem is through automation -- use of a "forcing function." An example of a forcing function is not allowing an automobile driver to shift into reverse until the they have their foot on the brake pedal. This is a far superior solution to educating drivers to not shift into reverse until they have their foot on the brake pedal.

Google needs to implement a forcing function with Google docs so that their software is not misused on the Internet. No amount of user education will fix the problem -- only some sort of forcing function will fix it.

[Achshar]

Can you give an example of how it would work? (online for forms, not offline/IRL)

[davidf18]

I haven't thought about it at all as to how Google would fix their problem. Still, they've introduced a component into the Internet ecosystem that has been found to be abusable and they are accountable to install the forcing functions to prevent that abuse. To depend upon user education is simply irresponsible.

The idea of forcing functions is well known in organizational/system theory.

Another way to think about this is the recent notices that Java (and at other times Adobe Flash) has recently introduced a security flaw where people using their computer can have it hacked into (Apple suggests removing Java unless you really need it).

Just as we would expect Java/Oracle and Adobe/Flash to fix their security flaws so should Google fix theirs.

[cbr]

This is a very different sort of security flaw than with Java and Flash. Google Forms was allowing users to create forms asking for information and then send links to other people asking them to fill them out. Which is exactly the intent of the program.

When you ask for a "forcing function" you're requesting a way to let people create forms asking for information in general but not letting them ask for information that people aren't allowed to give out. This may be possible, but it is at least very difficult.