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Don’t Mess with The Google

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Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#161

Post by matt4077 »

tempestn wrote: post #109

I'm mildly uncomfortable with my primary address being outside my control. (Like most, I use gmail too.) A year or two back I registered stretch.email, as Stretch is, in fact, my last name. Obviously most of the more common 'stretch' domains are taken, but this one was available and seemed appropriate. I have since discovered that enough services don't support newer tlds as to make it basically unusable for authentic…

Strange – I've been using a .coffee domain and haven't run into a problem yet (although I've only used it maybe 30 times, not adding too many new accounts these days)

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#162

Post by ocdtrekkie »

relics443 wrote: post #88
Hnrobert42 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you seriously trying to argue the current ToS situation is reasonable? Seriously?

I'm telling you a fact. A ToS is legally binding. Outrage, and wishing it weren't so won't change that.

Actually, many aren't. Many Terms of Service agreements or EULAs are looked at quite critically today because of the fact that companies reasonably expect that nobody has read them. Sensible provisions tend to be upheld, unfair ones... aren't always. If I install an app, and buried in it's EULA is a requirement that I become their indentured servant, it isn't enforceable.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#163

Post by chj »

citruspi wrote: post #160
chj wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is another fastmail customer. Just curious how do you confirm identity? I don't remember setting a backup email.

Possibly something similar to this[0]? [0] https://www.fastmail.com/help/account/icantlogin.html

Thanks for the link. Need to prepare for it.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#164

Post by Roboprog »

DavidWanjiru wrote: post #145

Is it legally enforceable for a company to dictate what you can or cannot do with a phone that you bought from them? Sure, the terms said whatever they said, but is it enforceable/constitutional? I mean, people sell their phones all the time for whatever reason.

Yeah, that was going to be my question. (if) I bought and paid for your phone, why do you give 2 shits about what I do with it?

Of course, maybe the answer is "we sell the phones at a loss, and you are only supposed to get one, so we have a tentacle around you". Who knows...

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#166

Post by taneq »

DavidWanjiru wrote: post #145

Is it legally enforceable for a company to dictate what you can or cannot do with a phone that you bought from them? Sure, the terms said whatever they said, but is it enforceable/constitutional? I mean, people sell their phones all the time for whatever reason.

I would have thought the Doctrine of First Sale protects you legally (as in, they can't sue you for reselling a phone), but I don't think there's any legal protections on provision of a service.

Bottom line: Never rely on a corporation.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#167

Post by papaf »

alistproducer2 wrote: post #102
throwaway76543 wrote: post #15

I recently made a decision to stop running my own mail server, figured it was long, long overdue to pay someone to handle my email for me. Stories like this are why I didn't pick gmail for this service, which would have otherwise been my first choice.

Can I ask what your email stack was? I'm working on a project that's a cross between TOR and bit torrent to provide free (encrypted) email to the masses that doesn't monetize data. I've been on a crash course of all things email lately.

Not the original poster but in case it is interesting to you:

1. Arch Linux.

2. OpenSmtpd.

3. SpamPD

4. DkimProxy

5. Dovecot

This replaced a Postfix stack that I was using. I miss the use of Postgrey, the greylisting daemon, and I seem to get more spam because of this.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#168

Post by pmyjavec »

"Quite frankly it’s scary to think about how much I rely upon Google for everyday life. Losing everything that I’ve accumulated with Google for the past 15 years would be devastating."

It's probably best not to lean on a private entity like Google so heavily. People are literally giving them their whole lives. I've stopped using practically all of their services (maybe a search here or there), for this and many other reasons. I've hardly been inconvenienced at all.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#169

Post by kkarakk »

hn_user2 wrote: post #110

This is a big wake up call for me. I have everything in google: Drive, email, voice, docs, sheets, etc. I was actually about to sign up for Fi. The convenience of everything in one place is great. But I don't think I had quite thought through a disaster like this. With this article in mind, need to reevaluate. I guess either regular local backups and/or diversification of service providers would be a good step.

devil's advocate(or in this case, google's i guess), unless you do something shady prohibited by google's TOS(which i recommend you read and understand if you value your data), google is pretty good about everything. even when they shutter services they give you plenty of advance warning and have options to takeout backups of data easily always remember google offers all of these services for free and you're still getting more value than you paid for

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#170

Post by setq »

First post, might as well be a cautionary tale. My father, a pretty old programmer by anyone's standards, regularly warns me of this sort of thing. He was pretty much shafted by CompuServe many years ago on a miniscule scale compared to what is possible now. He lives his life in what I previously described as a paranoid bubble of data control.

Until I inevitably burned myself with Google. I have no idea what happened but my account was terminated suddenly. No warning and no explanation as my backup address was no longer valid. This was two years ago. I lost documents, account details, contacts, calendars, email history, conversations between people on hangouts plus my phone decided to ask me to sign in again and became as useless as a dumbphone instantly.

Took about a month to reorganise my life and I lost contact with people, failed to complete tasks because my record was gone, lost control over my personal finances which were in Google sheets. Probably burned a week of my life on this as well.

Now using a cheap Nokia 106, POP3 box with gandi.net, mozilla Firefox and lightning, encrypted USB sticks for backup and LibreOffice. Never been happier.

I am genuinely afraid of going through this again. Everything remains portable between OS and provider now. Things are more volatile than we realise. I understand my father now.

I'm not against using all in services like Google but you need backups, an exit plan and a DR strategy explaining where all the services will go plus the time to carry it out. If you don't have these or it's too expensive to do this even for a personal user, don't even cross the starting line with the product.

Edit: Also beware of potential mergers, political whim and products being redacted or broken for long periods of time. All of these have affected me over the years.

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