Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs

#1

Post by tshtf » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 6:06 PM UTC

Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs
consumerist.com

Re: Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs

#2

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 6:31 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs

#3

Post by hannibalhorn » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 6:42 PM UTC

I use Backupify to at least maintain a copy of everything with a second, separate service, just in case. It's free at my volumes, and I think a prudent idea for those of us with everything in "the cloud".

Re: Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs

#4

Post by rwolf » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 6:43 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #2

[deleted]

I cannot find that string in the linked article, or the TweetLonger post that the article links to. What are you talking about?

Re: Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs

#5

Post by c2 » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 6:48 PM UTC

Google has a support problem. I'm amazed after almost a decade of offering services like email and advertising, they still haven't done anything to develop a reasonable support system for customers to address issues like this. Maybe they have a few open lines with their top 1% of customers but the attitude that "it's free, you are a meaningless statistic in our giant revenue stream so too bad" for the rest of their customers in unacceptable.

Your data in Google could disappear in an instant, and you may never know why. That is just scary to me. Advertising, email, - everything - with no one to call and no recourse to get it back.

I will be actively trying to move all my services off of Google starting today.

Re: Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs

#6

Post by GvS » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 6:48 PM UTC

Google+ makes getting backup of all your data really easy (https://www.google.com/takeout/). I'm really worried about Google horror stories but I like using their services, so I'll just settle with doing regular backups.

Re: Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs

#7

Post by dfxm12 » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 6:49 PM UTC

It's funny because this would be a feature for Facebook that people want...

Re: Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs

#8

Post by wccrawford » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 6:49 PM UTC

This isn't the first post on HN about this. The other one has the reply from Google.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2793784

Re: Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs

#9

Post by rexf » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 6:49 PM UTC

rwolf wrote: post #4

[deleted] wrote: post #2

[deleted]

I cannot find that string in the linked article, or the TweetLonger post that the article links to. What are you talking about?

Looks like the comment was intended for this thread:

Didn't Get Into TechStars? Don't Sweat it (currentlyobsessed.com)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2794477

Re: Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User's Digital Life, Shrugs

#10

Post by nhashem » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 6:53 PM UTC

I used to play World of Warcraft and I used a separate email address for all my WoW activities on web -- emailing, blogging, commenting on blogs, etc.

One day I was about to leave a comment on a blog when I got a message saying Google disabled my account due to the fact that they "perceived a violation." There was a little form I could submit an appeal/explanation to, and they said they would review my account within 30 days.

Being cut off from the WoW blogosphere wasn't the worst thing in the world. About three weeks later I did get access to my account. Turns out I was hacked and the hacker used my account to spam a bunch of people -- not surprising especially since I used a pretty crappy password. Luckily my actual Battle.net account was under my main e-mail address, so ultimately no damage was done.

Still, all I could think was, "man, if this happened to my main email address, I would be so incredibly hosed it wouldn't be funny."