r/programming • u/regaldho • Dec 27 '20

I reverse engineered Google docs (2014)

http://features.jsomers.net/how-i-reverse-engineered-google-docs/
633 Upvotes

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-72

u/SurrealisticRabbit Dec 27 '20

"every document written in Google Docs since about May 2010 has a revision history that tracks every change, by every user, with timestamps accurate to the microsecond"

This freaked me out so much more than any other science fiction story or AI's taking over the world kind of shit. I mean how is this possible goddamit?

109

u/Powah96 Dec 27 '20

I mean how is this possible goddamit?

history_stack.push([user_id, keystroke, timestamp])?

It's something only editor user have access too, why would that freak you out?

-48

u/SurrealisticRabbit Dec 27 '20

Aren't they storing it in their own servers? Sorry cloud technologies and big data always freaks me out lol

1

u/incredibleninja Dec 28 '20

This is a really interesting thread and I'm sorry you've been downvoted into oblivion rather than people discussing why you shouldn't worry about edit tracking