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Google users locked out after 15 years' use

businessinsider.com

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Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#341

Post by wolco2 »

cm2187 wrote: post #243
_jjca wrote: post #60

This is genuinely scary. Photos, Yale locks, Fi, WiFi and Nest thermostat can all be poof gone because I made a silly YouTube comment? How is this not regulated? Google photos also 'helpfully' offers to delete your uploaded photos with 'some guarantee'!!! If this isn't an indication of a giant shitty monopoly that doesn't care about its customers at all, I don't what is. They have some AI ML fucking crap but can't fi…

If you are a “customer”. How many people pay for google services? I know it’s kind of jerky but I still agree that if you aren’t paying for the service, you have no leg to complain about it.

If you signup for an account you are not a customer in your view?

In google's view if I accept the terms google will treat me as a customer internally and using that relationship will sell my data.

Is google not in a legal position to do this?

The acceptance of the terms creates a customer relationship

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#342

Post by bigwavedave »

fullstop wrote: post #308
_jjca wrote: post #60

This is genuinely scary. Photos, Yale locks, Fi, WiFi and Nest thermostat can all be poof gone because I made a silly YouTube comment? How is this not regulated? Google photos also 'helpfully' offers to delete your uploaded photos with 'some guarantee'!!! If this isn't an indication of a giant shitty monopoly that doesn't care about its customers at all, I don't what is. They have some AI ML fucking crap but can't fi…

I got gmail accounts for my kids after they were born. My youngest, 12, attempted to sign in from a Windows PC in our house and was told that they could not verify that it was her. Keep in mind, this is the same public IP address that we've had for ages. I am the recovery contact for the account since she is a minor, and have filled out the forms several times now, even giving the exact date and the "verification cod…

I love protonmail! I made the switch a couple years back and haven't looked back, with one exception- my city's utilities company blacklists protonmail, so in the handful of times I've emailed them (specifically there were three times they've shut off my water because someone with a very similar looking address didn't pay their bill) with proof of something-or-other, it supposedly doesn't make it to their communal or "personal" inboxes. This is the only time I've had this kind of problem though- protonmail has served me well.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#343

Post by withinboredom »

wegs wrote: post #175
knbknb wrote: post #110

fellow chromebook users: If you had a Chromebook, and Google locked your account. Does the scenario described in the article imply that you can no longer can log into your own laptop?

A Chromebook isn't your own laptop. It's a lease from Google for 0-6 years, after which they effectively disable it. You can look up when your lease ends here: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en If this scenario happens, you can think of it as Google terminating the lease early. No biggie.

My chromebook isn't even listed (Acer Cb154-x) seems like the list isn't exhaustive.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#344

Post by ystad »

afandian wrote: post #17
TheChaplain wrote: post #3

Tip: Get your own domain from a non-google registrar, then connect to Gmail if you prefer. If you ever are locked out, you can just move the address to another email-provider. Another trick is to use always have forwarding enabled in Gmail, to Outlook.com or another provider. All email will be forwarded despite your account being locked, so you will not miss out on important info. And use Google Takeout for backing u…

I've used a custom domain + gmail for the last decade. Earier this year I got sufficiently spooked and decided to switch email. The migration to fastmail.fm , including a decade of old mail messages, was flawless (if slow, but it's a lot of data!). I highly recommend this route.

what other providers did you look at other than fastmail. Is there a TOS that might lead fast mail to lock one out?

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#345

Post by wolco2 »

prepend wrote: post #228
roenxi wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm trying to not make this sound harsh; but you really don't need a government regulator to tell you that centralising all your data with Google, who are providing largely free services, is risky. It is like building a house on the edge of a cliff then falling off the cliff one day. It was always a real possibility. Being locked out of your stuff is quite a likely end of the story with Google.

You need a government regulator to stop large companies from buying up lots of small companies and adding them to this risk pool. I bought 3 Nest thermostats long before Google bought them. I wouldn’t have done so after the buyout. If google bricks my thermostats because my kid does something dumb on YouTube (through the linked tv accounts) that will suck. I suppose regulators could also prevent companies from bundli…

Nest sold you a poorly designed product. If they had sold you something that could be plugged into any network then you could reuse it. From the start the product had a big fault google buying it just highlights that design flaw.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#346

Post by [deleted] »

octoberfranklin wrote: post #102
koonsolo wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me explain what happens when my house burns down, taking along all my hardware: - I buy another laptop and install Linux. - I connect my Google, Dropbox (which contains google backups) and Github, and they contain all data I own. - I buy a new smartphone and connect it to Google Simple as that. And my house doesn't need to burn down for this, when I buy a new laptop or smartphone I do the same. Plus, all my email…

> Let me explain what happens when my house burns down Does your house burn down that often? Frankly, getting deplatformmed is a much higher-probability event. > and they contain all data I own. No, they contain all data you think you own.

[deleted]

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#347

Post by judge2020 »

fullstop wrote: post #308
_jjca wrote: post #60

This is genuinely scary. Photos, Yale locks, Fi, WiFi and Nest thermostat can all be poof gone because I made a silly YouTube comment? How is this not regulated? Google photos also 'helpfully' offers to delete your uploaded photos with 'some guarantee'!!! If this isn't an indication of a giant shitty monopoly that doesn't care about its customers at all, I don't what is. They have some AI ML fucking crap but can't fi…

I got gmail accounts for my kids after they were born. My youngest, 12, attempted to sign in from a Windows PC in our house and was told that they could not verify that it was her. Keep in mind, this is the same public IP address that we've had for ages. I am the recovery contact for the account since she is a minor, and have filled out the forms several times now, even giving the exact date and the "verification cod…

Did you sign up and enter a fake birthday? Google doesn't allow creation of real accounts for minors under 13 years old unless you use family link[0].

0: https://families.google.com/familylink/

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#348

Post by wolco2 »

lol636363 wrote: post #319
itsoktocry wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The phone company can’t just randomly cut off service and ghost me. Regulators are the reason for that, as I’m sure they’d love to if they could. If you're paying your bill, why would they care? Regulation is part of the answer, but it's also part of the problem. If a YouTube comment wasn't at risk of "being mean" or breaking arbitrary rules (pushed by regulators, Google isn't doing it on their own), you couldn't b…

There are a lot of stories of people paying for Google Services getting locked out too. Personal experience, once I created an Adword ad using one of the image that Google Ad creator had suggested. It was nothing, just a woman in bikini. It was approved and then rejected with warning that I violated their guidelines. I wanted protest but thought probably not worth it. This could have perma banned me from Google, I st…

Adwords, youtube, adsense carry that danger. Setting up a youtube channel become risky.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#349

Post by ubermonkey »

I've been yelling about this for years.

In every single case, if you are not paying for a service, be aware you'll eventually get screwed.

In every single case, if you put too many eggs in one basket -- one computer, one hard drive, one vendor -- you'll eventually get screwed.

Google has made it very very very easy to get deeply enmeshed with their ecosystem of "free" offerings, and those offerings can become very very important to people. That's a TRAP.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#350

Post by Fnoord »

bigwavedave wrote: post #342
fullstop wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got gmail accounts for my kids after they were born. My youngest, 12, attempted to sign in from a Windows PC in our house and was told that they could not verify that it was her. Keep in mind, this is the same public IP address that we've had for ages. I am the recovery contact for the account since she is a minor, and have filled out the forms several times now, even giving the exact date and the "verification cod…

I love protonmail! I made the switch a couple years back and haven't looked back, with one exception- my city's utilities company blacklists protonmail, so in the handful of times I've emailed them (specifically there were three times they've shut off my water because someone with a very similar looking address didn't pay their bill) with proof of something-or-other, it supposedly doesn't make it to their communal or…

> with one exception- my city's utilities company blacklists protonmail

Why do they do this? Did you contact them about it? I would say it seems, at face value, that your city's utilities company did not serve you while Protonmail did.

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