Simple rule: Do not use Google services for business-critical areas. Expect that you can lose access to Gmail,
Google Workspace, Google One at any time without doing anything wrong.
Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked
291–300 of 1001 posts
Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked
#292I know everyone loves to give Microsoft a kicking but they have amazing customer support compared to Google. I've known people buy dodgy keys from eBay that haven't worked and have gone through MS support and had the key activated.
A hotmail account may not be cool anymore but at least you're likely to be able to talk to someone if you have a problem.
Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked
#293It's painfully clear at this point that we need a consumer "bill of rights" to protect us from these giant tech companies. At the very least, companies must be legally required to present you in writing with the so-called violation of terms they're accusing you of, evidence of the violation, and a phone # or other immediate contact so that you can dispute the accusations. It's insane that these basic legal rights don…
>You could of course sue Google
Unless you've waived that right when you agreed to the Terms of Service.
Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is there really no way for a user to get in touch with a human agent? File for a C&D and then, if that does not help, a court-issued injunction order ("Abmahnung" followed by "Antrag auf Erlass einer einstweiligen Verfügung"), if you're German. This works somewhat reasonable for Twitter, Facebook and Google.
You would need legal standing. A free account isn't your property.
In Europe, GDPR has provisions about algorithmic decision-making, including a "Right to explanation":
https://turkishlawblog.com/read/article/221/algorithms-meet-...
I look forward to this getting used against Google and everyone else banning customers without explanation and/or recourse.
Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked
#295This makes me anxious about my long time Gmail address. Back then I got it just because it and Google was cool, and their services had a good reputation. It was a different Google back then. If they had launched it this year I would never have got one because chances are it would have been cancelled by 2025. Gmail is really the only valuable thing that actually ties my life to Google. And it's not that hard to replac…
Start the process of getting out right now. Get an email address that you own, on a domain you control. Switch to a provider that takes your money for whom you are the customer - not the product. I did this with Fastmail and Iki.fi, a Finnish non-profit[1], who have been selling people "permanent" email addresses since 1995. [1] http://www.iki.fi/
Thank you. I have been on the fence for a bit. But I will initiate project leave Gmail and Gdrive now. It will take me a year, but the deliveries and the final goal is clear.
Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked
#296This makes me anxious about my long time Gmail address. Back then I got it just because it and Google was cool, and their services had a good reputation. It was a different Google back then. If they had launched it this year I would never have got one because chances are it would have been cancelled by 2025. Gmail is really the only valuable thing that actually ties my life to Google. And it's not that hard to replac…
Pay $25/mo for GSuite enterprise if your email matters to you.
Those can get shut down in exactly the same manner.
Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
> * GDPR/Privacy laws (The law requires the deletion of no-longer needed data. As soon as his account gets banned, the data is no longer needed for Googles business purposes (of providing service to him), so the deletion process can't be delayed. This is simply wrong since the account is always "banned" and not "deleted". So the data is still there, not providing it is going against GDPR. Evidence for this is all the…
> But somehow accounts get unbanned if they get enough attention... so this does not seem to be a problem. Having 10 highly paid long-tenured engineering employees who can look at small parts of a users account data is clearly better than having 10,000 call center workers be able to access user private data. The end result is high profile incidents get handled in a way that it would be too risky to do for everyone. E…
Or how about this: when the engine triggers a ban it just notes the reason for the ban in the database, and then tells the user why the ban happened?
I don't see why all the reasons above mean basic transparency can't happen.
Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked
#298Thanks for this reminder that google is never to be trusted. I just bought a proton mail, I can't risk to lose access to my mails.
What does ensure that Protonmail will not have the same business model and the same behavior 10 yers from now as Google?
For starters, users pay for that email service with money. This only works if users are willing to pay.
Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked
#299You’d think that there’d be a “this person is high profile and any automated bans will cause a stink” flag on accounts to require human review on such decisions, but apparently one of the richer companies in the world just can’t be bothered to hire a few extra people to avoid a PR problem. That or they’re convinced that they’re this close to fixing the automated system, which they obviously are not.
On the other hand, I'd prefer they fix this process for everyone and not just those with X twitter followers.
I'm completely uninterested in making waves on social media, but I still expect services (whether paid or free) to work as advertised considering I'm not misbehaving. If they don't want me as customer/user, then say so and I'll find another provider.
Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked
#300This makes me anxious about my long time Gmail address. Back then I got it just because it and Google was cool, and their services had a good reputation. It was a different Google back then. If they had launched it this year I would never have got one because chances are it would have been cancelled by 2025. Gmail is really the only valuable thing that actually ties my life to Google. And it's not that hard to replac…
Start the process of getting out right now. Get an email address that you own, on a domain you control. Switch to a provider that takes your money for whom you are the customer - not the product. I did this with Fastmail and Iki.fi, a Finnish non-profit[1], who have been selling people "permanent" email addresses since 1995. [1] http://www.iki.fi/
Any thoughts on getting your own domain and then still using gmail for receive email on that domain?