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Don’t Mess with The Google

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Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#121

Post by BorisMelnik »

kajecounterhack wrote: post #120

Disclaimer: I don't speak for Google and don't have any real context into why this occurred. Speaking as myself, a private citizen. I work in Spam & Abuse and it's possible that this is the result of some clustering algorithm that was trying to take down sharders / phone buying rings. It's very possible that the SWEs responsible didn't consider this possibility (that legitimate customers would be used to shard purcha…

thanks for clarifying, I thought the same thing right away as well: smells exactly like automation. I could never see Google suspending an entire account for one person selling one phone.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#122

Post by lifthrasiir »

kajecounterhack wrote: post #120

Disclaimer: I don't speak for Google and don't have any real context into why this occurred. Speaking as myself, a private citizen. I work in Spam & Abuse and it's possible that this is the result of some clustering algorithm that was trying to take down sharders / phone buying rings. It's very possible that the SWEs responsible didn't consider this possibility (that legitimate customers would be used to shard purcha…

I believe automating a whole account suspension is not a good idea at all.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#123

Post by indiv0 »

jdietrich wrote: post #118

Rule Zero: Never rely on a URL that you don't control. Use your own domain name for your e-mail addresses. Use your own domain name for canonical links to content. If you control the URLs, you do not depend on any one provider. Rule One: If you only have one copy, you have no copies. It is an act of faith to assume that a Youtube video or a file in Google Drive will remain available, just as it's an act of faith to a…

While I'm in complete agreement with you (everyone should be responsible for protecting and ensuring the integrity of their data), it seems a little unreasonable to expect the average gmail user to purchase a domain name, link it to an email provider, (optionally) migrate their emails, etc.

Same goes for YouTube videos. Content creators typically maintain copies of their work, but casual youtubers don't.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#124

Post by brongondwana »

morganvachon wrote: post #38
el_benhameen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask who you chose?

Not the OP, but I've been looking at Fastmail for a while to replace Gmail for a robust dedicated email service. I haven't felt the push to pull the trigger yet, until reading this article.

We (FastMail) are really nice people :)

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#125

Post by indiv0 »

morganvachon wrote: post #38
el_benhameen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask who you chose?

Not the OP, but I've been looking at Fastmail for a while to replace Gmail for a robust dedicated email service. I haven't felt the push to pull the trigger yet, until reading this article.

FWIW, I migrated all of my email from gmail to fastmail with a script I found online about 2 years ago and setup email forwarding from my gmail account to my fastmail account. I also linked my domain name to my fastmail email (before I just used an @gmail.com email).

I've really enjoyed fastmail so far. Their UI is intuitive (after the first few days), and the service is very fast and stable.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#126

Post by brongondwana »

xaa wrote: post #93
jerf wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheese off the government enough, and they'll freeze everything , bank accounts, ability to be hired, your freedom to not be in jail, everything, not just "your account with them". The problem isn't the "profit" bit, it's the "everything" bit.

I agree that the "for profit" bit isn't the problem, it's the sheer size of Google. Everyone who has been paying attention has watched with dismay as Apple and "don't be evil" Google (along with other, smaller, actors) have become increasingly amoral over the last decade. Same goes, of course, for the government. I don't see any reason to believe that there's anything other to it than sheer size: as a company gets la…

I'll let you know if we ever get to that point :p

Right now we're very much driven by humans.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#127

Post by brlewis »

kajecounterhack wrote: post #120

Disclaimer: I don't speak for Google and don't have any real context into why this occurred. Speaking as myself, a private citizen. I work in Spam & Abuse and it's possible that this is the result of some clustering algorithm that was trying to take down sharders / phone buying rings. It's very possible that the SWEs responsible didn't consider this possibility (that legitimate customers would be used to shard purcha…

Retention should be longer if an account is suspended on Google's initiative than on the user's initiative.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#128

Post by brongondwana »

exolymph wrote: post #94
a3n wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fastmail. I'm just a regular (paying) customer, not a business or anything. I've opened a small number of tickets, one or two of the RTFM variety. I've always got a human response and satisfaction, even a "here, let me RTFM that for you." I can't imagine being locked out of my fastmail account for anything other than abuse of my fastmail account . Or not paying my bill.

Just chiming in to say I also use FastMail and love it. The only thing I wish they did differently is offer SMS 2FA. (Yeah, I know about the downsides. I am a normal person who doesn't need extreme security.)

Any modern phone should be able to run a TOTP client. For my own FastMail account I have a TOTP client on my phone plus two Yubikeys, one I carry with me and one that I keep at home. We require all our staff use 2FA because emails from us get the magic green tick :)

So yeah, if I have my phone, I have a 2FA option already without SMS. I normally use the Yubikey because it's super easy.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#129

Post by taurath »

cmoscoso wrote: post #61
taurath wrote: post #23

Pretty incredible - especially with how little that a hardware product purchase has to do with a user's data. Imagine for a moment that google required people to have an account to access all their services - that they have the ability to cut you off arbitrarily across ALL their services for a TOS violation should scare anyone. Imagine if facebook cut your account and thereby ties to many of your friends and acquaint…

OMG, I can't even imagine live after being cut out of facebook, all my friends are there.

I keep a light profile there myself, but I know of a lot of folks who are older for whom its the only platform they or anyone they know uses.
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