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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

#571

Post by raisedbyninjas »

a3n wrote: post #434
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…

The only thing worse than hanging your identity on @gmail.com is @comcast and the like. If you can, your own domain backed by a fastmail or a proton is the sweet spot of easy and flexible, or at least an @fastmail, @proton or similar. With payment comes the possibility of human support, which I have received easily from fastmail.

Without going to the step of moving photos, mail, contacts, etc. off of Google services. Are there automated tools available to periodically export that data?

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#572

Post by smdz »

A string of such stories have me concerned. What happens after you are locked out? Can one have access to the data? I have a lot of important personal and business related stuff in GMail and GDrive - do they revoke read access too?

EDIT: I know about email clients setup to backup data, but there are other reasons I do not like to use those - unless of course that is the only way to protect data

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#573

Post by [deleted] »

hilbert42 wrote: post #14
dmitriid wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you have a trillion dollars stashed away. Then you wouldn't care about lawyer costs. That's the main reason big corps get away with doing what they are doing.

You would if laws demanded you always had to hand back users' data if you locked them out. That's the problem we don't have a proper legal framework to manage Google and other Big Tech.

[deleted]

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#574

Post by dmitriid »

g_p wrote: post #74
hilbert42 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would if laws demanded you always had to hand back users' data if you locked them out. That's the problem we don't have a proper legal framework to manage Google and other Big Tech.

In Europe there's no provision for GDPR rights to access to data to be removed on these non-grounds, so users would have the right to get access to their takeout. Since Google's processes don't seem to give access to that, you might have to sue them. If they failed to show though, you should be able to get a default judgement eventually. (note - GDPR is in some cases privately litigable, so you don't need to wait aro…

Europe has been really slow giving out fines. And even those fines are often less than a slap on the wrist. In France Google got fined $57mln for breach of GDPR. That's what Google makes in 3 hours.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#575

Post by reaperducer »

_imba_ wrote: post #359

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 misrepresen…

Google shopping gives 2 orders of mag better conversion than any other channel we tried

Until it doesn't. All businesses should have a disaster plan.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#576

Post by creato »

dheera wrote: post #484
LorenPechtel wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it was basically legit--somebody used it to try to spread malware, their spider found it.

Interesting. I blocked executable file types I knew of though. It's possible someone uploaded a MS Office file with a virus, a HTML file with a phishing scam or some such, though. Still, I don't think it's right for Google to use their iron feet to stomp an entire website / product / small business / personal project just because of a small fraction of users abusing that service. ALL services get abused at some point…

In my experience, a lot of malware scanners don't care about file types, they just look for patterns of bytes.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#577

Post by Sodman »

I wonder what happens if this occurs when you're a regular paying customer for one of the few Google products that has actual customer support? The example that comes to mind is Project Fi, their google-as-a-phone-carrier product. If my Google account was ever banned, what happens when I call up Project Fi, to whom I regularly pay $80 / month? Would they tell me to create a new Google account? Would my phone service automatically stop working?

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#578

Post by shaicoleman »

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.

It's not disabled, it just doesn't get new software updates.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#579

Post by stickfigure »

eropple wrote: post #521
gitweb wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should it also be a requirement for the government to posts what preferences you look for in a partner on dating websites, what gender you prefer when searching for doctors, what race you prefer when looking for cleaning or child care assistance?

This is a ghastly and inhumane comparison. Companies aren't people.

Companies are groups of people, ranging in size from 1 to many.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#580

Post by leptons »

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…

> 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.

>You need a government regulator to stop large companies from buying up lots of small companies and adding them to this risk pool.

These two statements are not even close to arguing the same thing.

The previous commenter is saying that it's common sense that "centralizing all your data with Google" may not be a great idea, especially if you don't have any backup of that data and keep all of it in Google.

They are being downvoted, wrongly, by people who knee-jerk about the "don't need a government regulator" bit. But they only used that phrase as a kind illustration of the common sense that people should have about not having a backup of their data.

Yes, Google does need some government regulation. And yes, people shouldn't need a government regulator to tell them not to keep all their data in the cloud without any local backup at all.

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