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

consumerist.com

111–120 of 258 posts

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

#111
post #27

I don't think we'll see a change in Google's approach to ignoring customer service, until they get hit with a class action lawsuit The problem is with bots...Google automates everything, so they hit a lot of people with false positives.

What law would people bring a class action lawsuit against Google with? The same one they used against Microsoft to make Windows less buggy?

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

#112
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only as a storytelling device. And in Deep Space 9, the Ferengi Nog was willing to spend his entire life savings of Latinum at the request of his friend Jake, just to buy Jake's dad a baseball card, simply to make him happy. I hope one day I do something like that for someone. Maybe on my deathbed or something. I don't know; I just wish people were... better people. To each other. I know they never will be, but I'd r…

And as long as we're geeking out, money existed but not in the Federation . So, not for humanity. Outside cultures had it, which made them an interesting foil for a humanity whose abundance taught them to value other things.

There's a little bit of ambiguity. Starfleet didn't use money, at least not explicitly, but there were humans who amassed personal fortunes, and other Federation worlds that had market economies. Money was also referenced several times in various Treks [0], sometimes with a character talking about how humans don't have money, and other times with a character talking about selling something, charging for something, or being willing to spend money for something ("I'd give real money if he'd shut up" - McCoy, referencing Chang's Shakespeare quotes, ST VI)

[0] http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Money

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

#113
post #24

FWIW, Brett Slatkin at Google reached out via Google+ to try and help this guy. Looks like they made the connect: https://plus.google.com/u/0/116969159384245484847/posts/Z1UH...

> FWIW Not much. They're only doing damage control. I wonder whether Matt Cutts is on holiday or something, by the way..

I talked to the person with this complaint, then looked into it myself. The account was suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service. After digging into the situation, my personal opinion is that Google took appropriate action. I'm sorry that I can't go into more detail.

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

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FWIW Not much. They're only doing damage control. I wonder whether Matt Cutts is on holiday or something, by the way..

I talked to the person with this complaint, then looked into it myself. The account was suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service. After digging into the situation, my personal opinion is that Google took appropriate action. I'm sorry that I can't go into more detail.

This really needs to be the top comment- Takes alot of the mystery about this out of the question/

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

#115
post #10

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…

I have to wonder how many complaints of Google shutting down accounts is due to the person getting hacked and the hacker commiting the violation. Not sure how Dylan can say the below quote with absolute certainty... On July 15 2011 you turned off my entire Google account. You had absolutely no reason to do this, despite your automated message telling me your system "perceived a violation."

Not sure how Dylan can say the below quote with absolute certainty...

He can say it because Google apparently can't be bothered to explain exactly what 'violation' he supposedly committed.

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

#116
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, because manually re-entering data that exists already is just what a geek wants to do with the next few months of their life. Not.

i'm just saying that it's not the same order of problem as not having the mail at all. also, the majority of my tags are applied using filter rules, which are relatively easy to duplicate on an offline archive.

I'd say it's a bigger order of problem than not having the mail at all. I have mounds of inadequately organized information. I don't want to add to the amount of noise I have to sort through.

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

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On all available tlds? Really?

well having me@lastname.ly would require you to explain "that's a .ly not .com" and therefore not solve this particular problem

Hey, where're the salary poll results?

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

#119
post #49

I think there's an important lesson here that you can take home right now: If your primary email is an @gmail.com address, you have your head firmly in the lion's mouth. You can backup your data. You can have fallback tools and services. You cannot backup your identity. And if that identity is controlled by Google, you are tying your online existence for the duration to the foibles of a publically traded company with…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damocles

I thought you looked familiar.

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

#120
post #27

I don't think we'll see a change in Google's approach to ignoring customer service, until they get hit with a class action lawsuit The problem is with bots...Google automates everything, so they hit a lot of people with false positives.

What law would people bring a class action lawsuit against Google with? The same one they used against Microsoft to make Windows less buggy?

beats me.

I'm sure a lawyer can come up with something

Maybe something along the lines of "Google accused me as a violator of their Terms of Service when I didn't do anything wrong...this caused duress and headaches for me, to a point where I can't sign up for a service under fear that I'll get accused again for doing nothing...this has made a huge impact on my quality of life , which is why I'm seeking $2.5 million in damages"

then times that a million or two users.

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