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Don’t Mess with The Google

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Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#221

Post by eloisant »

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 can confirm that I heard many stories of Android developers getting their Google Play dev account suspend for various reasons (which is already really bad in itself, if you have a popular app that makes a significant part of your revenue), but I rarely heard about full Google account suspension for a Play Store violation (maybe once or twice among dozens of Play Store suspensions stories).

I'm still puzzled that they take such a drastic measure automatically, without having one human checking whether the account is actually a real person's account.

I really want to see what comes out of this, if everyone gets his account reinstated and how long they had it suspended.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#222

Post by kuschku »

cowl wrote: post #200
mistermann wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 othe…

Google only has about 85% marketshare in phones, 96% in Search, still problematic.

And Producer rights are affecting Consumer rights.

Without a free market, we're all worse off — the only justified monopoly is a governmental one.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#223

Post by pksadiq »

The good (really, the bad) news is that whatever seems to have happened, haven't really happened.

No user's data is ever deleted by Google (or any other company) ever, even if you have deleted your account.

If you run some hosting company, you know it. You have backups and backups of backups.

Once I contacted a website who frequently SMS'd me to scrub my phone number and to not do that again. They did it right, but after a few weeks I began receiving SMS again. Probably they ran into some issues and some of their data were restored from their backup.

Some companies could even have read-only backups so that they can have their data saved even in a massive attack.

Some developers have argued me not to ever delete user data. Just mark it is deleted, and never show it to user again. Having a way to actually delete your data may be used by some attacker to bring your service down.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#224

Post by kuschku »

hellofunk wrote: post #209
zhte415 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Have your own domain name. You can change provider from Z to Y at the flash a DNS record gets updated. Email is designed as a federated service, but to be so your email _address_ needs to be too. 2. For files, use a cloud solution and have 2-3 computers updating their local copy (home PC, work PC, phone, small Pi box acting as server). I have a Digital Ocean box running ownCloud, soon to change to nextCloud. Put y…

Don't forget about the guy whose twitter account was stolen because a hacker got access to his email _because_ the weak link was a custom domain and poor security at Godaddy. The domain was hacked, giving the attacker full access to email, and therefore ability to change passwords, transfer ownership of a prized twitter account and more. It has been discussed here quite a bit. The folks that answer phones at domain r…

Then don't trust a registrar.

Get a domain directly through a NIC that offers that directly.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#225

Post by toennisforst »

majewsky wrote: post #181
kkarakk wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ge…

> even when they shutter services they give you plenty of advance warning The original article is about how this is absolutely false in the case discussed.

Parent was probably referring to closing down entire products (e.g. Google Reader).

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#226

Post by peller »

rebootthesystem wrote: post #195
setq wrote: post #170

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…

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…

While I don't disagree, and I'm not sure if this applies specifically to Google in this case, but as a general trend oftentimes users sign their class action rights away in the EULA by way of an arbitration clause.[0] This, in and of itself, is also IMO a huge abuse of power. But it's perfectly legal and only serves to further entrench the power of the monopolists.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitration_clause

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#227

Post by thinkMOAR »

"Don’t mess around with Google or any company that you simply can’t live without."

If your life/internet usage is that simple i think you might need to take some computer/internet lessons in learning about alternative services that work just fine. There is internet beyond google and Facebook.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#229

Post by LukeB_UK »

cammil wrote: post #196

I 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 dat…

I believe that personal data in the context of the Data Protection Act means data about you, so it wouldn't.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#230

Post by Asooka »

john61 wrote: post #137
mistermann wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Wait if they get into the automated car driving business for some real sad situations.

> please drive me to the hospital, I broke my arm

> I can't do that, the hospital is within 50 miles of a school and you're banned from being within 50 miles of a school, because you commented "she's very pretty" to a picture of your 5-year-old niece and we've decided you're a paedophile.

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