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Updating our inactive account policies

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Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#191

Post by atomicfiredoll »

I wish they would let me sign in to my account with my old last name, but even though I know the password and have had it for a decade, that's apparently just unacceptable.

The company trajectory and the fact that there doesn't seem to be any support for this sort of thing is why I'm ultimately un-googling my current accounts, documents, etc.

Edit: The kicker is that I get security notifications about the failed login attempt at the recovery email, so I know they could send recovery information to that address. I trusted them to use the "recovery email" for account recovery when issues like this occur and now that basic trust is gone. It's been said over and over, but this is all another reason not to build your online identity around Google.

That said, this policy change makes me really concerned about how difficult it is to run your own email solution that people trust. Today's email ecosystem feels very focused on Gmail and those accounts just became more ephemeral.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#192

Post by pradn »

asah wrote: post #184

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, s…

No, storage costs aren't plummeting. They've been largely stagnant the past 3-4 years. I don't think the reduction in the number of drives for the same amount of storage is as significant as the cost of the drives themselves.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2....

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#194

Post by aimor »

kyrra wrote: post #183
aimor wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Yes I should, but I didn't.

I used to get emails from them: 2013-08-11 "Your Google Voice number --- has expired", 2021-04-11 "Your Google Voice number --- will expire in 30 days", 2021-11-06 "Your Google Voice number --- will expire in 30 days", 2021-11-30 "Your Google Voice number --- will expire in 7 days"

Nothing about expiring numbers since then. The last contact I had was: "2022-12-14 Notice: Verify your Google Voice forwarding phone --- in the next 30 days"

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#195

Post by aimor »

nashashmi wrote: post #181
aimor wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm glad they notified you, but they never asked me.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#196

Post by Vvector »

noobermin wrote: post #182
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.

Maybe the USPS? No way I'd trust them

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#197

Post by tivert »

Zetobal wrote: post #175
tivert wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That Google account that your dead friend had that you keep on your buddy list because it gives you memories? Gone. That Facebook account with your dead family members photos and timeline? Gone. The Twitter account with all the tweets from you child who died too soon? Gone. And unless you're the account owner, good luck archiving any of that. I believe Facebook is extremely hostile to scraping, and I don't think Tw…

Nothing you described sounds mentally healthy at all. For Facebook and google you can download a dump of the data if you provide a death certificate and are next of kin.

> Nothing you described sounds mentally healthy at all.

What now?

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#198

Post by Kye »

aimor wrote: post #194
kyrra wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Yes I should, but I didn't. I used to get emails from them: 2013-08-11 "Your Google Voice number --- has expired", 2021-04-11 "Your Google Voice number --- will expire in 30 days", 2021-11-06 "Your Google Voice number --- will expire in 30 days", 2021-11-30 "Your Google Voice number --- will expire in 7 days" Nothing about expiring numbers since then. The last contact I had was: "2022-12-14 Notice: Verify your Google…

Mine always end up in spam.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#199

Post by account42 »

WeylandYutani wrote: post #49
qingcharles wrote: post #33

I wish I could get into my old Google account. I unexpectedly went to jail for 10 years and when I got out I couldn't log into my account because my 2FA (phone) was gone. I had 10 years of email in there. Would love to find another way to authenticate myself. Looks now like it is all going to be hosed anyway.

I understand that 2FA is good but it can also be annoying when you've forgotten the email backup.

Right, a lot of times when people push for increased security measures they omit the cost.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#200

Post by brigandish »

chii wrote: post #185
brigandish wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I didn't say they should, I simply pointed out that the "money [which] has to come from somewhere" is coming from somewhere, they place we all thought it came from - our data.
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