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

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

#171

Post by jakerocheleau »

khafra wrote: post #168
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #113

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.

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.

yeah just came here from reddit and I have to say... this is extremely disheartening. Google is very, very pathetic these days.

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

#172

Post by mailbvk »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #113
white_devil wrote: post #71

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 the first time in my life I have been disappointed by Google. If you are about to disable anyone's account, you need to give atleast a few days notice with an option for downloading all the emails, pictures, calendars, docs, etc.

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

#173

Post by jellicle »

Matt_Cutts wrote: post #113
white_devil wrote: post #71

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.

Cutts, Google still doesn't understand the problem here.

Let's say I decide I have to break up with my live-in girlfriend, for good and sufficient reason. Perhaps she banged my three best friends, perhaps she literally killed my dog with an axe. Doesn't matter - I have my reasons. I break up with her. I still have to give her back her stuff from my apartment. If I don't do so, I'm committing a separate offense of my own. I lose the moral high ground.

Maybe something has to be worked out - maybe a friend of hers has to come over and get it, maybe I put her shit in boxes out on the porch. Whatever. I still have to give her back her stuff. The courts agree, public opinion agrees, the police agree. Whatever she did, no matter how egregious the violation, my swiping her stuff is FUCKING FROWNED UPON and is not justified by whatever harm she did to me.

Google demonstrates no knowledge of this legal and social norm. That's what is pissing people off. Implement a system to let people download their data from closed accounts and you can delete accounts with no explanation all day long.

Stealing people's data - regardless of what they did to you - is something that most people consider to be evil. Nobody cares about whether the guy did anything wrong or not. He's seizing the moral high ground from you because you, also, have committed a wrong.

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

#174

Post by Pewpewarrows »

ajays wrote: post #148
ajays wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even assuming the OP pulled some stunt with AdWords (and this is just an assumption that you're putting forth, without any evidence whatsoever), does it justify wiping out that guy's entire online existence? His photos? His emails? His documents? This is like sentencing someone to death for shoplifting. GMail, Picasa, etc. are not about AdWords; they're a means for people to connect with each other. Unless, of course…

Wow. A bunch of Google fanboys voting me down for stating something rational, but that just happens to be anti-Google. I just started using G+ (mainly because I'd like there to be a strong competitor to FB), but Google's antics give me cause for concern. I'd hate to get "hacked" some day and have Google completely wipe out every bit I have with them.

You can download your data from Google anytime: http://www.google.com/takeout/

When you sign-up for a Google account, there's a little something called a Terms of Service you agree to. You violate them? You sacrifice all rights to any data you may or may not have on their services. That's something every Google user agrees to from day one. If you don't like that punishment, you shouldn't have signed up.

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

#175

Post by ptman »

jellicle wrote: post #173
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #113

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.

Cutts, Google still doesn't understand the problem here. Let's say I decide I have to break up with my live-in girlfriend, for good and sufficient reason. Perhaps she banged my three best friends, perhaps she literally killed my dog with an axe. Doesn't matter - I have my reasons. I break up with her. I still have to give her back her stuff from my apartment. If I don't do so, I'm committing a separate offense of my…

Physical objects can only be in one place at a time. Data on the other hand can be backed up while it is still being used by the service. And Google collects information about how to do this for their services in one place: the Data Liberation Front http://www.dataliberation.org/

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

#176

Post by lukeschlather »

icebraining wrote: post #128
lukeschlather wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMAP is horribly unreliable. POP discards information. IMAP also discards information - I don't just want my email, I want my tagged email.

How is IMAP unreliable for backups? If you want to keep the tags, take a look at heliotrope[1], a personal email server with tag support that can sync Gmail accounts. [1]: https://github.com/wmorgan/heliotrope

I should say Thunderbird. Its IMAP implementation has always had issues downloading large volumes of mail for me.

I also live in an area where latency is normally measured in seconds, so I think you and everyone downvoting me are living in a slightly different Internet from me.

Heliotrope sounds like it might offer a good alternative without a six hour journey back to civilization.

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

#177

Post by josecastillo »

ptman wrote: post #175
jellicle wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cutts, Google still doesn't understand the problem here. Let's say I decide I have to break up with my live-in girlfriend, for good and sufficient reason. Perhaps she banged my three best friends, perhaps she literally killed my dog with an axe. Doesn't matter - I have my reasons. I break up with her. I still have to give her back her stuff from my apartment. If I don't do so, I'm committing a separate offense of my…

Physical objects can only be in one place at a time. Data on the other hand can be backed up while it is still being used by the service. And Google collects information about how to do this for their services in one place: the Data Liberation Front http://www.dataliberation.org/

"Users should be able to control the data they store in any of Google's products. Our team's goal is to make it easier to move data in and out."

This philosophy, or at least the "out" part, should apply doubly after someone's account is terminated in this manner. Google has determined that sinning against one service warrants terminating access to other services. That may be justifiable. But sinning against one service should not warrant loss of one's data in other services.

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

#178

Post by [deleted] »

jellicle wrote: post #173
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #113

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.

Cutts, Google still doesn't understand the problem here. Let's say I decide I have to break up with my live-in girlfriend, for good and sufficient reason. Perhaps she banged my three best friends, perhaps she literally killed my dog with an axe. Doesn't matter - I have my reasons. I break up with her. I still have to give her back her stuff from my apartment. If I don't do so, I'm committing a separate offense of my…

[deleted]

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

#179

Post by Locke1689 »

josecastillo wrote: post #177
ptman wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical objects can only be in one place at a time. Data on the other hand can be backed up while it is still being used by the service. And Google collects information about how to do this for their services in one place: the Data Liberation Front http://www.dataliberation.org/

"Users should be able to control the data they store in any of Google's products. Our team's goal is to make it easier to move data in and out." This philosophy, or at least the "out" part, should apply doubly after someone's account is terminated in this manner. Google has determined that sinning against one service warrants terminating access to other services. That may be justifiable. But sinning against one servi…

No. The ToS applies to all Google services.

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

#180

Post by Locke1689 »

harzakc wrote: post #164
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #113

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.

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,…

You can download your data from these services at any time before you commit a ToS violation.
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