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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

#351

Post by snazz »

Anarch157a wrote: post #334

Everyone saying "I would lose all my e-mail" apparently doesn't know about fetchmail, getmail or even Thunderbird. Just download your mail using IMAP or POP3 and archive it locally. I recently deleted my last Gmail account (that I had since 2001). Before doing it, I tried Google's Checkout to get the data, but it was adking me for "verification" (i.e. more info about me) to finish the download. I just fired up Thunde…

You can also schedule Google Takeout, which gives you a nice .zip or .tgz with mbox files, in addition to all of your other Google information. I have it set to deliver one of these backups every two months automatically.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#352

Post by sumtechguy »

hilbert42 wrote: post #124
goatinaboat wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really am curious why so many actually do so There was a time, maybe up until 10 years ago, when Google was cool . Everyone wanted a GMail address, it started out as invite only, like Facebook. "Do no evil" was the motto. And they ramped it up slowly like boiling a frog. The evil, I mean. And here we are today.

It would be interesting to know if that was the initial plan from the outset or that it evolved along the way.

I think they started off at a good spot. Then realized they wanted more control of the data going through them. Then they realized they wanted to control the way the data flowed in an ideological way. It is a natural reaction to someone who gets a decent amount of wealth. They think 'how can I make the world a better place'. But the mistake many make is not realizing that their way is not the best way for others. Sometimes the best way is just to kick the actual trolls and just let everyone be they way they are. They are no longer satisfied with that. Doing what they are doing is going to 'dismantle' their people network. In 10 years people may be saying 'oh yeah remember google'. It can happen. At one point a lot of people were on AOL now it is a ghosttown of what it was.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#353

Post by jandem »

plif wrote: post #182

This terrifies me. I recently signed up for Google One just to mitigate the lack of support if I were to lose access to my account. Perhaps the other thing to do is not comment using my account, which feels very wrong. All of the other options have drawbacks too. With Fastmail or another provider, you're trusting another corp. Setting up your own involves a bunch of work and difficult to solve drawbacks like spam fil…

> With Fastmail or another provider, you're trusting another corp.

You're trusting a corp that offers customer support, a service you pay them for. With Gmail you're completely on your own because you're only a small cog in the massive data mining machine. That's a pretty big difference.

That said, it's a good idea to set up a custom domain with a trusted registrar.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#354

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

alisonkisk wrote: post #288
ypcx wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"and my Fastmail account is now configured to enable me to send using my Gmail address from directly within Fastmail" I don't see this on their website, will this keep working if Google bans your account?

Why would you want to send mail from an address you can't receive replies at?

"Hi all, Please be aware that this account is closed and I may now be reached at foo@bar.baz."

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#355

Post by winter_blue »

This is horrific beyond measure.

There should be a lawsuit over this.

There should also be legislation that mandates that companies like Google (or Apple) that hold critical amounts of user data, need to have a reasonable process for customers to restore their accounts, or take out their data.

At the very least, Google should allow him to take his data out of their system.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#356

Post by fullstop »

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…

There are a few things that protonmail is not good at, but I guess I've learned to live with them.

1. You can't search message content. gmail is very good at this, so I've had to become more organized to make sure that I can find a particular message in protonmail.

2. Notifications on mobile do not clear if I've read the message on another device. I have to open up the app and sync to stop them from popping up with outdated information.

3. I wish that there was a way to mark a message as archived and read from the mobile notification.

Other than that, I can't complain.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#357

Post by delfinom »

stareatgoats wrote: post #188

It should be illegal. Companies that provide public utility type services should be obliged to follow certain laws, one of them being that they are not allowed to shut people out from their own data. They could provide the service as read-only on alleged breach of terms (allowing the user to migrate) for example. Shutting them out completely: just no.

If you live in the EU, Google are legally obligated to hand over your data under GDPR notice.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#358

Post by bigwavedave »

megous wrote: post #314
beowulfey wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is huge and they run a vast portion of the internet now. If they were to suddenly decide that all FastMail accounts should go to spam tomorrow, any users of FastMail would be SoL—they would be unable to communicate with a huge majority of the internet. They could decide to randomly throw every 5th email that is not a gmail into spam and blame it on other providers having low reliability. Make it random enough…

That would backfire spectacularly, and would probably kill gmail.

> That would backfire spectacularly, and would probably kill gmail.

How would that kill gmail? It's not like they're going to lose any real part of their user base. Short of a press release from google confirming the behavior, the average user is not going to go through the hassle of finding a replacement provider and then changing every email address associated with every service they use (if it's even possible for the service) all for some nebulous and impossible-to-confirm conspiracy theory put forth by tech experts and security experts that don't get listened to even when there is proof. And it's not like other companies and services would take a stand by ceasing to offer service to customers with gmail accounts- that's an incredible way to lose a vast portion of your customer base.

I wish it weren't this way, but I just can't see that bringing down gmail. Especially not when every google service requires a gmail account- probably the same one most people have had for years.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#359

Post by _imba_ »

Not completely related to personal accounts being banned, but something that happened to me recently:

I started a side business with some friends during lockdown. We created an online store selling some hard-to-get long tail items, and almost instantly got some traction and growth thanks to Google Shopping. A month ago we received one of these generic automated mails that our account is banned and we were misrepresenting ourselves or a product with no details on what we did wrong. We went through the T&C's in some detail and we think we did everything they asked, and we have no idea what we didn't do well enough. We also checked in with every single client and we had near perfect scores on trust pilot, I can't recall a single incident with a client.

We've been contacting Google almost daily but almost never been able to find a human to talk to. Through unofficial channels we've found a few people in Goolge but whenever they gave us any advice on what to do it's always "off the record" or "you didn't hear it from me". Something is very rotten.

There are always replies on here about not betting your entire business on Google. Google shopping gives 2 orders of mag better conversion than any other channel we tried. For search-to-buy there really just aren't any alternatives and if Google decides to lock you out your business is basically dead. Lucky for us it was a side hustle. Here in Africa e-bay and Amazon aren't options.

More scary, since then we've found TONS of businesses in our country who have suffered the same fate in the last month, and many are well-established, popular businesses now facing existential threat.

It's incredibly scary that Google's moderation bots can be a single point of failure for a business employing 20+ people.

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