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Google users locked out after 15 years' use
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Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#292This article finally prompted me to do what I should've done a long time ago, which is to create a Fastmail account and begin importing my Gmail into it. I've seen this story far too many times, and no longer will I say "yeah but it'll never happen to me". Setting up the import was insanely easy, and my Fastmail account is now configured to enable me to send using my Gmail address from directly within Fastmail. Plus…
I migrated to Fastmail a few weeks ago. I'm really happy with it and I wish I had done it years ago. Many features. The web interface and apps feel a lot faster than Gmail. Pro-tip: use a custom domain so that you can easily switch e-mail providers in the future without vendor lock-in. It's also very easy to add aliases in Fastmail. > Plus after the import is finished, it will still periodically bring over any new em…
Another protip: fastmail lets you alias yourname@yourdomain.com as anything@yourname.yourdomain.com. You can use this feature to create a unique email address for every service you sign up for. This is really handy for filtering to folders, or blocking marketing spam.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#293I moved to mailbox.org.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#294This is the post I needed to start cutting out Google as much as possible. Not because I want to go 100% Google free but having too many Google services means that you are more likely to inadvertently violate one of their terms.
1. Remove Google Analytics and Adsense. Especially Adsense seems high risk.
2. Remove free apps from Play Store
3. Stop uploading public videos on YouTube
4. Stop sharing files through Google Drive
5. Use only my own domain for emails that are forwarded to Gmail.
6 Stop storing passwords in Chrome.
Only reason I want to keep Google is for Gmail, calendar, Nest Thermostats, Nest Doorbell.
Photos are already backed up in Apple Photos in addition to Google Photos.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#295What is the first step to de-googlify your life ?
Buy a domain name.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#296> The music he purchased through Google Music has also disappeared. "The app took it upon itself to delete all the downloaded music I had on my phone." If they are selling access to stuff via the account, surely revoking access without reason will have legal consequences. Couldn't it be viewed as consumer discrimination?
You didn't buy the music. You bought a license to use it and they revoked the license. At least that's how I've been made to understand how "buying" digital content works.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#297Self-hosted email seems to elicit conflicting reports of experiences - I think the takeaway I've seen cited most often is that it is incredibly difficult to get your emails delivered to users because you will be randomly blocked one day. I feel like there ought to be some kind of "let's encrypt for email" type solution to create trust but I'm not sure how it could be done.
Google filters their own email sometimes. I’ve seen them filter facebookmail.com too. Microsoft is just as bad. It’s incompetence. The only difference with using a huge provider is they can probably contact someone to get it resolved. As the little guy you can’t.
Yeah, but have you seen them reverse a binary tree on the whiteboard?
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#298Yeah I'm always worried about this. I have a paid Microsoft office 365 account with all my email and a lot of data on it. I backup my OneDrive regularly using an rsync-style tool. But the email is more difficult now that it's all in exchange format. I could use IMAP die the backup but Microsoft is going to block basic authentication soon.
At least Microsoft has an infinitely better reputation for customer service and product retention. I mean , when was the last time they shut down a major product?
...or blocked someone due to SJW?
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google is pretty unique here. You can have a dedicated support team at Google with a multimillion dollar account, and still be wack-a-moled by Google's automated systems. The root issue is Google. This doesn't happen with most companies. This is specific to Google's culture, which treats customers as statistics. That comes out of how Google thought about search and ads, and doesn't work for anything else. The seconda…
To be fair, I don't think other providers like Microsoft are much better, but also note that the service is equally bad if you pay for ads or cloud. I'm generally against too much regulation, but given how important e-mails are (access to all sorts of accounts, important messages from clients, tax, etc.), this is a case where a certain service level needs to be mandatory, e.g., unlocking within few hours.
The bigger problem here even if you want to maintain your anti regulation stance is that a Google lockout prevents the user from acquiring the data that is rightfully theirs. If a lockout included something like a 90 or 120 day sunset period where you had read only export, even a harsh termination could at least be defensible.
Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use
#300This article finally prompted me to do what I should've done a long time ago, which is to create a Fastmail account and begin importing my Gmail into it. I've seen this story far too many times, and no longer will I say "yeah but it'll never happen to me". Setting up the import was insanely easy, and my Fastmail account is now configured to enable me to send using my Gmail address from directly within Fastmail. Plus…
I did the same, but I never got to like Fastmail so I switched back to Gmail after a year. This time I'm on my own domain though so they can close my account all they want, I'd just setup email with another domain on the same address . Would lose my emails in the process, but that's secondary concern. I've used a secondary Protonmail account lately and it seems decent. I haven't used it enough to make a fair comparis…
I love the experience on Fastmail personally, but you have checked all the boxes to protect yourself if A. You have recent Takeouts or sync of your inbox and B. People know to reach you via the address on your own domain, which you can repoint to a new service if necessary.
If you're doing these two things, you're effectively protected from this issue, even if you use Gmail. Of course, it won't necessarily help you with losses from other Google services you might be cut out of. For an Android user, for instance, there's no real way around potentially losing every app you've ever bought on Google Play.