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Updating our inactive account policies

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Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#181

Post by nashashmi »

aimor wrote: post #142
crazygringo wrote: post #72

I'm seeing a lot of criticism here in the comments, but what's the alternative for free accounts? If you're not using it, how long is Google (a for-profit company) supposed to hold onto your data for free? 100 years? 50 years? 15 years? 2 years seems pretty reasonable to me for something provided by a for-profit corporation. And as other reporting has noted, they're not deleting YouTube videos (makes sense, since whi…

I found out yesterday that my Google Voice number was no longer mine. No inactivity warning email like I had received in the past, no notice at all, I just tried to Zelle some money to myself (testing the service with $1, thankfully) and was surprised to find out the number wasn't mine anymore. I wanted to contact Google to ask if there was any hope of getting it back, but I couldn't find a way to reach them. The Voi…

I remember the email that asked me if I wanted to keep my number. New accounts were paid for. And mine was free. I said yes to keep.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#182

Post by noobermin »

crazygringo wrote: post #72

I'm seeing a lot of criticism here in the comments, but what's the alternative for free accounts? If you're not using it, how long is Google (a for-profit company) supposed to hold onto your data for free? 100 years? 50 years? 15 years? 2 years seems pretty reasonable to me for something provided by a for-profit corporation. And as other reporting has noted, they're not deleting YouTube videos (makes sense, since whi…

This is probably a real hot take, but some services should indeed be public utilities and be run by a non-profit. That way we can avoid the constant debates about deplatforming and all that.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#183

Post by kyrra »

aimor wrote: post #142
crazygringo wrote: post #72

I'm seeing a lot of criticism here in the comments, but what's the alternative for free accounts? If you're not using it, how long is Google (a for-profit company) supposed to hold onto your data for free? 100 years? 50 years? 15 years? 2 years seems pretty reasonable to me for something provided by a for-profit corporation. And as other reporting has noted, they're not deleting YouTube videos (makes sense, since whi…

I found out yesterday that my Google Voice number was no longer mine. No inactivity warning email like I had received in the past, no notice at all, I just tried to Zelle some money to myself (testing the service with $1, thankfully) and was surprised to find out the number wasn't mine anymore. I wanted to contact Google to ask if there was any hope of getting it back, but I couldn't find a way to reach them. The Voi…

You should get inactive email alerts. I got them regularly from March 2019 until Oct 2022 (I got rid of the number finally). The email has the subject of:

> Your Google Voice number (xxx) xxx-xxxx will expire in 30 days

Sent by "voice-noreply@google.com".

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#184

Post by asah »

related question: given plummeting prices per GB for raw storage, I'd have expected the cost of hosting storage to drop per GB as well, and yet we haven't seen a commensurate drop, even given competitive pressure. What gives?

Yes, I know there's many other costs but I'm talking about * PER GB * and just for storage not access. A disk drive roughly takes the same amount of space/power/cooling regardless of capacity, so if you install 2x larger drives then cost ** PER GB ** should fall in half. And yet, we haven't seen that among cloud providers.

This should mean that inactive accounts quickly drive to near-zero cost, since they're nothing but storage capacity. Photo hosting should drive to zero. etc etc etc

Can anyone explain ??

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#185

Post by chii »

brigandish wrote: post #163
sjfidsfkds wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost per GB of hard disk has not dropped much in the past few years, the money has to come from somewhere.

They make more than 50 cents per year of off people’s info, even from inactive accounts I’d reckon.

> 50 cents per year of off people’s info

info which they already got, since the account is inactive, it is no longer contributing any new info. So why would they be paying for nothing?

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#187

Post by nashashmi »

The most notorious problem with deleting accounts is the accounts that are used as third-party login. Google can lock me out of my account and I will also be locked out of the other services that don't belong to Google.

There needs to be legislation for this kind of thing.

Another problem: emails on my old account need to be transferred over. That's the only reason why I need the old account. But there is no simple way to do this. And two accounts cannot be merged either. I have been using a ninja technique that adds something like a Hotmail address as a sign in. Takes out the email data. And then deletes the email account. And then creates a new one. And then reuploads the emails. Annoying as hell. The Hotmail address is the only way my login method remains.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#188

Post by tjoff »

bhelkey wrote: post #180
turtleyacht wrote: post #179

As a part of the criteria for an active account, I wish they would include "forwards to another active account." Otherwise, you need to sign in on those accounts every so often, but they are essentially empty.

> Before deleting an account, we will send multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion, to both the account email address and the recovery email (if one has been provided).

... still need to sign in.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#189

Post by ben_w »

8note wrote: post #138
lamontcg wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If this were a government-provided service then it would be one thing. But it's not, it's a for-profit company that gives you free products in exchange for ads. It is so big it is nearly a monopoly and it is part of our lives which is almost impossible to avoid. It should be regulated a lot more like a government and not treated like some kind of startup business.

Gmail should just be nationalized at run by the post office

Nationalised by which nation, and run by whose post office?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Post

It's not just Americans who use gmail.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#190

Post by MSFT_Edging »

pb7 wrote: post #133
qingcharles wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I am a British citizen living in the USA so I waited nine and half years in custody to go to trial.

Why did it take so long?

This is very common in the US justice system. There's a general institutional apathy or sometimes even vindictiveness that causes random delays to get to trial. If you don't have the money for bond, don't have someone to pay, or a bondsman wont cover you, you just stay in jail.

Every year multiple people die in prison from preventable causes without ever being sentenced.

This is why bail reform is important. A well-off person can pay-away the bond and prepare to defend themselves. A poor person will be stuck, lose their job, home, important documents, pets, etc all before being found guilty. If they're found not-guilty, its simply their fault for being poor or being in the wrong place at the wrong time and there's zero recourse for these people having their life basically lit ablaze. Please don't take the anti-bail reform propaganda at face value, for every terrible outlier case, there are hundreds of people who don't have their life grenaded over a small charge.

Making people desperate is an easy way to increase crime.

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