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How likely is losing a Google account?

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Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#11

Post by calvinmorrison »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #3

This reminds me, again, that I should look into setting up my own home mail server. Is there an off the shelf solution for this? I don't mind setting up another PC as a server for this, but how hard is it?

there's mailinabox - but instead I would recommend just setting up your own domain with MX records, and using IMAP locally to store archives. Worst case scenario you lose a few hours of email if your provider kicks you, and you can flip to another one.

personally I would pick fastmail.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#12

Post by karteum »

sshine wrote: post #2

Okay, so it's not very likely. What made me transition away from Google/Gmail as my identity provider was pondering the question: How screwed am I if I get locked out of my Google account? The answer: Well, if you're on Hacker News, you may have a chance of reaching a human. But if you broke a policy, good luck. I'm paying $5/mo. for that to not be that screwed. (I have family who got locked out. It does happen.)

> I'm paying $5/mo. for that to not be that screwed (I have family who got locked out. It does happen.)

But the article precisely addresses that:

For example, in HN discussions people will often recommend Fastmail or Protonmail, but they've had their problems too (FM: 2017, 2020, 2022, PM: 2018, 2019, 2021). Especially given that these are much smaller services I'm not convinced that the risk is lower there. Any system is going to have to handle this sort of problem, and you're not going to find one that never has false positives.

What I'd like to know is : do FM/PM more easily enable to talk to a human ?

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#13

Post by guptaneil »

It's true that every service has to deal with the same policy and lockout problems, but that doesn't lead to the conclusion that the risk is the same. I pay for FastMail because

1. if something goes wrong, I can reach a human without needing to write a viral blog post first. Other services pay for a customer service department.

2. I trust FastMail more to not shut down their product because they got bored. Sure Gmail will probably not go away, but I'm honestly not as confident about Google Workspaces or whatever it's called now for individuals.

3. I'm tired of acting like using products from an ad company is a good idea. People happily use an email service, browser, OS, and more from the modern DoubleClick without a second thought.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#14

Post by codegeek »

edent wrote: post #5

Yup - happened to me. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2015/11/the-day-google-deleted-me/ "Luckily" I had enough identity documents to prove to Google's satisfaction that I was who I said I was. But even after I recovered the account, it was all screwed up. Since then I've dropped my reliance on Google. I don't use them for sign-in, my mail gets regularly backed up, I use alternative apps where I can. Google scale only works…

This was related to Google+ (which is rightfully dead now). I wonder if they have something similar to recover for regular Gmail accounts. From the horror stories, doesn't seem like it.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#15

Post by MarkusWandel »

Two comments on this.

1. Merely looking at published noise may vastly underestimate the size of the problem. Lots of "normal" people including one close to me have several accounts containing parts of their life history lost for one reason or another, and just accepted it and moved on.

2. "Kids in the bath", ha. Carefully framed photo to avoid sensitive areas, taken with a tablet that happened to be handy that is not usually used for photography. Next thing I know I see them on another device. Darn thing had Google Photos with cloud sync enabled by default! Not for long, and I made sure to purge those photos from the cloud. But it can happen that easily.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#16

Post by bryanrasmussen »

edent wrote: post #5

Yup - happened to me. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2015/11/the-day-google-deleted-me/ "Luckily" I had enough identity documents to prove to Google's satisfaction that I was who I said I was. But even after I recovered the account, it was all screwed up. Since then I've dropped my reliance on Google. I don't use them for sign-in, my mail gets regularly backed up, I use alternative apps where I can. Google scale only works…

but there is not process or person that has ever existed that has been infallible, therefore you are arguing that Google scale does not work?

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#17

Post by kfarr »

Overall good analysis but this one quote is kinda crazy if you think about it

"I put a little effort into avoiding grey areas (not filing chargebacks to Google, not taking pictures of my kids in the bath) but otherwise don't worry about this."

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#18

Post by Wildgoose »

sshine wrote: post #2

Okay, so it's not very likely. What made me transition away from Google/Gmail as my identity provider was pondering the question: How screwed am I if I get locked out of my Google account? The answer: Well, if you're on Hacker News, you may have a chance of reaching a human. But if you broke a policy, good luck. I'm paying $5/mo. for that to not be that screwed. (I have family who got locked out. It does happen.)

That's the same calculation I made. It doesn't make sense to have all of your eggs in a single basket.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#20

Post by prima-facie »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #3

This reminds me, again, that I should look into setting up my own home mail server. Is there an off the shelf solution for this? I don't mind setting up another PC as a server for this, but how hard is it?

Email is harder than you think mainly because of spam protection. The big four will just bin emails received from you if the server's IP doesn't have some reputation.

Instead use your own domain with whatever email provider suits you. Much easier to setup and worry-free.

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