Posted on Dec 8, 2020
Am I allowed to create a google site to help manage my platoon?
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99% sure this answer is "no".
At my civilian work as a government contractor, we use SharePoint and MS Teams to manage work. Google has an app called Google Sites that basically creates a website that pulls together Google Drive and everything else. It would be awesome to be able to use some tech to help organize my platoon, but I'm pretty sure there is a DODI that says not to. And I'm not talking about PII (that's obviously not allowed).
https://sites.google.com
At my civilian work as a government contractor, we use SharePoint and MS Teams to manage work. Google has an app called Google Sites that basically creates a website that pulls together Google Drive and everything else. It would be awesome to be able to use some tech to help organize my platoon, but I'm pretty sure there is a DODI that says not to. And I'm not talking about PII (that's obviously not allowed).
https://sites.google.com
Information Technology (IT)
Platoon
Organization
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 9
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Why don't you just use MS Teams? The entire Army is using MS Teams the last several months. I think my daughter's school even uses MS Teams for her online school.
Don't use Google - don't use anything that could potentially be unsecure or easily hacked into. I guarantee Google anything could be easily hacked plus Google collects on everyone that uses their stuff.
Even if it's not PII I wouldn't use anything like that with Google. It might not be PII, but it's not hard for someone who is up to no good to get ahold of information and piece together things on a bunch of soldiers...just saying.
Don't use Google - don't use anything that could potentially be unsecure or easily hacked into. I guarantee Google anything could be easily hacked plus Google collects on everyone that uses their stuff.
Even if it's not PII I wouldn't use anything like that with Google. It might not be PII, but it's not hard for someone who is up to no good to get ahold of information and piece together things on a bunch of soldiers...just saying.
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Just don't do anything like that on a system that isn't DOD or DA controlled. That's what AKO is for.
A battalion commander of mine told us company commanders to use WhatsApp. I dragged by feet as long as I could before he pointed out I was the only one not using it. Not long afterward top brass pushed out it couldn't be used and now we are on MS Teams.
Years ago, a team leader over me made us put all our personnel documents on the cloud. They were secure and all that, but he had control of all the sub folders for each individual soldier of his. Fast forward, he got caught up in a EO complaint, and then he locked out the complaining soldier from her own personnel folder.
What I ended up doing to help the female soldier (since I was a Jr NCO in the section, and had admin access) was download all her documents and then e-mailed them to her directly. The EO complaint wasn't against him (he was helping an officer friend of his), but it pointed out a weakness that could be abused. If she went after him too for this he'd be done.
COL's are getting in trouble in the last few years regarding un-secure Apps on personal and gov computers for official business.
You're just better off using government owned or sponsored means for work and technology. Lets say the system sucks, and all data is compromised and lost, well at least you wont be holding the bag.
A battalion commander of mine told us company commanders to use WhatsApp. I dragged by feet as long as I could before he pointed out I was the only one not using it. Not long afterward top brass pushed out it couldn't be used and now we are on MS Teams.
Years ago, a team leader over me made us put all our personnel documents on the cloud. They were secure and all that, but he had control of all the sub folders for each individual soldier of his. Fast forward, he got caught up in a EO complaint, and then he locked out the complaining soldier from her own personnel folder.
What I ended up doing to help the female soldier (since I was a Jr NCO in the section, and had admin access) was download all her documents and then e-mailed them to her directly. The EO complaint wasn't against him (he was helping an officer friend of his), but it pointed out a weakness that could be abused. If she went after him too for this he'd be done.
COL's are getting in trouble in the last few years regarding un-secure Apps on personal and gov computers for official business.
You're just better off using government owned or sponsored means for work and technology. Lets say the system sucks, and all data is compromised and lost, well at least you wont be holding the bag.
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2LT (Join to see)
Sir, I'm specifically looking for an application like SharePoint or MS Teams for my unit. Since you brought up AKO, is there something like SharePoint and Teams on AKO that I have access to by default? And is there any online training for AKO?
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CPT (Join to see)
2LT (Join to see) - I've set up and used shared folders in the past on AKO (when it was the older system a few years ago). I have not tried it since, but it's there.
So if you "have to" share tracking documents you could use AKO for that, but you're not going to get to a point where you can access it on your phone because you'll always need CAC access.
So if you "have to" share tracking documents you could use AKO for that, but you're not going to get to a point where you can access it on your phone because you'll always need CAC access.
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Don't try to use something else and don't try to re-invent the wheel. There are already DOD accredited resources you can use in AKO. Use them. Save yourself the headache.
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