Live data from Hacker News

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

consumerist.com

161–170 of 258 posts

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

#161
post #154
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are scripts to do it via IMAP, but it takes a very long time and it's a bit of a pain to set up.

Just use an e-mail client: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78799

Gmail only lets you download so many messages at once. It takes a very long time.

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

#162
post #35
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world would be a better place if if companies focused on "people", and not on "money". Of course that's unrealistic. But I don't care. I grew up believing in Star-Trek-style society. You know... "Social problems are gone; people are free to devote themselves to improving themselves; etc". I honestly believed that humanity would someday achieve this. I used to believe most people were inherently good, and that the…

I sympathize with your idealistic sort of thinking but it is unreasonable. Corporations (which is what Google is) are responsible to shareholders. The purpose of a corporation by definition is to maximize the bottom line for the shareholder. It has nothing to do with being good to people. The only way that this guy's problem will get solved is if enough people catch wind of his situation that it affects the fairly po…

"The purpose of a corporation by definition is to maximize the bottom line for the shareholder. It has nothing to do with being good to people."

So in your opinion being good to people have NOTHING to do with maximizing the bottom line from the shareholder.

I beg to differ, IMHO the most profitable business are those that provide a very good product or service to their customers(people).

I remember the pre-google days, Altavista that forced you to click 5 buttons to do the same thing you could do with google on "Advanced search", That push pop ups that will flick on the screen with vivid colors and force you to visit their stupid "portals", that sold the three first web results page to the best bidders(so they were crap).

I recall that days every single day I have to visit my old hotmail account because they are not dead. If there were not some company that gave a better service that they do(google) they will come back.

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

#163

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.

Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the termination of this individuals account, he still brings to light some very valid concerns.

I'll quote terryb088 from reddit in saying, 'The whole "cloud computing" model that companies like Google are pushing requires that we place good faith in the companies that provide these services. In my opinion good faith runs both ways, and any suspension of services needs to have a channel for dispute and resolution.'

The bottom line is, with so much of our personal information and other material invested in Google and its services, the opportunity to appeal (much less be given a reason for) account termination should always be available. It speaks volumes of Google's attitude towards its users that there is not such an avenue already provided.

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

#164

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 is outrageous.

Deleting the whole account is really unjustifiable! If OP was abusing some service of Google, then ban him from this specific service, but why take his whole data?

If there is something to learn, it's to keep a local copy of anything you have, and never be 100% depending on an online service. But then this obliterates the benefits of investing entirely in so called cloud services with any company, including Google. Ownership of your data, doesn't seem to be one of those benefits.

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

#165

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.

Whether or not there has been a TOS violation, basically locking away the guy's past emails and any other documents he may have saved previously using Google services seems like the dick move of the century.

It certainly makes me question the wisdom of keeping my email in Gmail and my photos in Picasa. And anything else in other parts of my google account.

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

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sophistry : "a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning." Google makes money because they have users , in the same way that a television network makes money because they have viewers. Both are entirely reliant upon their user base, and will desperately trying to optimize and maximize that user base. If the GP's point was "there is a very low profit / user, and a limited im…

The majority of googles revenue comes from exactly the fact that they can sell targeted advertising. Neglecting that is what is unnecessary.

But they sell it to advertisers and the advertisee. They both are the customers of google.

Frankly, I think the problem is that google has no real competition. Google, really is becoming a fine example of why monopoly, regardless of whether it is merit based or otherwise, is bad, for in the end, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with having your own domain for email is the communication factor. When I tell someone my email is charles.lastname@gmail.com, there's no miscommunication. Worst case I have to spell out my last name, but generally if someone's asking for email they already have my last name. If you buy a domain, nowadays, you have few options with respect to getting an email that sounds legit, mature, and isn't long and/…

What about the .name TLD? I own (for now.. I'm not sure if that can be disputed if more people with my rather rare last name apply) lastname.name So - you can reach me, if I finally finish my migration and stop being a lazy bastard, at firstname@lastname.name - which is rather good imo. Sure, I've got other legacy addresses, but this could be a viable alternative to a gmail _identity_.

There is also the .me TLD - not sure if it has the same intentions as .name, but it is less used so more widely available. I own my lastname.me domain, and so I can (if I ever set it up properly) send mail to firstname@lastname.me, which is slightly shorter but works just as well.

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

#168

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.

I'm having a hard time imagining an offense that would justify removing the guy's access to all his data, but not calling the police.

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

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

zip his his data, close the account. even if he did some serious TOS violation, it's still his data. (or isn't it?)

It depends on whether his violation of the TOS involved him stealing data he shouldn't be allowed to have.

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

#170

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.

Was his entire account really wiped? That is pretty horrifying. Can you give us a hint as to what sort of offence would justify destroying an online identity? I use my google identity for almost everything I do. If the crime this guy committed was really so great, why isn't he in jail right now?
Post reply on HN