The OP should have advised people in the forums, do not use your original userID with google to mess. Create burner account.
Don’t Mess with The Google
191–200 of 504 posts
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#192First 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…
Going on a tangent, there should probably be a set of universal backup formats that can be advertised as being somewhat portable. So that, if you need to can take your mail and other online business stuff elsewhere if need be. Beyond this article a user might start working for some place that does not allow external app use, but they can bring their data with, to be loaded onto the service. I guess like github and gi…
Agree entirely. I considered forming a startup that did this after the fact.
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#193[deleted]
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you watch an old tech talk re: Google disaster recovery topic, the Googler explains that a user's info is never fully deleted because it's too expensive to do so given back-up duplication is processed multiple times in multiple locations and sometimes over multiple technologies. In other words, cancel your google account today and your data may be "deleted" but it's really, as in actually really , still on magneti…
How is that compatible with legal requirements for deletion? I think that, at least in Germany, you can demand that a company delete all data associated with you, and the company has to comply with it. (Whether German data protection law applies in Google's datacenters is a wholy different story though.)
Though this requirement is moot even in Germany, as it is impossible for you to verify such a deletion.
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#195First 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…
I'll repeat what I said in my prior comment on this thread: We need a massive class action lawsuit against these companies ASAP.
Google should not be allowed to cut someone off from all products without, at the very least, a reasonable period of time during which data is available in useful export formats, email still functions 100% so one can transition important accounts that use it, etc.
Consumers are getting hurt in a big way by these giants and nobody is doing a thing about it.
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#196I think this would be illegal in the UK due to the Data Protection Act:
Some excerpts from Wikipedia on DPA:
"Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date."
- Would Google be allowed to discard emails sent to you from others? Would this constitute personal information?
"Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data."
- Would Google be allowed to prevent access to your personal information?
Seems like the DPA should protect against this...
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#197Disclaimer: 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…
You are kidding, right?
Human decency dictates that, at the very least, someone be warned that their account is now headed for non-negotiable suspension and be given 30 days to clear out their stuff and move on.
I couldn't care less what algorithm decided what. At some point a person coded-in the rules and, for some incomprehensible reason, this person or people decided it would be perfectly fine to take the path of most damage to consumers.
Your company, Facebook, Amazon and others deserve to get hit with a massive class action lawsuit that results in equally massive financial penalties and requires corrective actions. Maybe then you'll learn how to behave like human beings.
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#198This really seems like it needs to be regulated in law. For telephone companies, there are rules about when they may disconnect you, e.g. the Arizona Utilities Division write > f I am unable to pay my entire bill, what can I do to maintain local dial tone? > The Arizona Administrative Code specifically states that a telephone company may not disconnect a customer for failure to pay an unregulated portion of their bil…
Enough with the Fastmail astroturfing on HN already !
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#199This really seems like it needs to be regulated in law. For telephone companies, there are rules about when they may disconnect you, e.g. the Arizona Utilities Division write > f I am unable to pay my entire bill, what can I do to maintain local dial tone? > The Arizona Administrative Code specifically states that a telephone company may not disconnect a customer for failure to pay an unregulated portion of their bil…
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.
Enough with the Fastmail astroturfing on HN already !
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's very possible that the SWEs responsible didn't consider this possibility "Very possible"? More like "guaranteed". Everybody who pays the slightest bit of attention knows Google has a gigantic blind spot when it comes to thinking through the consequences of algorithms and automation. And there's no sign that the company is interested in fixing that, ever.
Wait until they get into the thought police business for some real interesting situations. All jokes aside, for those who remember, it's pretty amazing what Microsoft got punished for ( bundling a browser with the OS, with no other restrictions) compared to what Apple and Google get away with.
Bundling a browser with the OS that had 98% of all user share at the time. neither Apple not Google come anywhere close to that market domination with their iOS or Android systems.
Also the case was much more broad that just the browser it was for software that runs on the OS.
Antitrust is not just about what a company does but mainly about what other alternatives are out there. In Microsoft's case there were no other alternatives while today you can choose between several.
EDIT: One more thing that everyone seems to confuse is that antitrust cases should protect CONSUMER rights not PRODUCER rights. A case can be made that Google and Apple are hurting other companies by offering free services with their products but they ARE NOT HURTING CONSUMERS.