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Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

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Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#51

Post by glitchc »

giantg2 wrote: post #22
paxys wrote: post #6

"I keep all my work on Google/Apple/Dropbox/Office" is really the new version of "I kept all my work on my hard drive and didn't back it up". All of these companies have shown repeatedly that they will cut off your access with no notice for any or no reason and with no recourse. Cloud backups used to be a smart thing to do. Now they are a liability.

"Cloud backups used to be a smart thing to do. Now they are a liability." If they're actually a backup they can be a good idea. If it's a single source, then yeah, it's asking for trouble. I even backup my GitHub stuff locally because who knows what could happen.

As long as your repos are up to date, they are already backed up. Did you mean that or something more explicit?

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#52

Post by giantg2 »

paxys wrote: post #34
giantg2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Cloud backups used to be a smart thing to do. Now they are a liability." If they're actually a backup they can be a good idea. If it's a single source, then yeah, it's asking for trouble. I even backup my GitHub stuff locally because who knows what could happen.

Even if they are just a backup, all these companies scan your data for offensive material and report it to the authorities if their algorithm deems it fit. There have been plenty of cases of parents being investigated by the police just for taking photos of their kids on their phone.

It depends on how you want to store it. You could store it encrypted. Any true backup worthy of the title should, in my opinion, be encrypted. Otherwise it's just a copy.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#53

Post by aaomidi »

paxys wrote: post #6

"I keep all my work on Google/Apple/Dropbox/Office" is really the new version of "I kept all my work on my hard drive and didn't back it up". All of these companies have shown repeatedly that they will cut off your access with no notice for any or no reason and with no recourse. Cloud backups used to be a smart thing to do. Now they are a liability.

I’ve always argued that we need regulation that prevents large companies from just yeeting your data.

At most they should be able to put it in RO mode to let you take it out.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#55

Post by exitb »

paxys wrote: post #6

"I keep all my work on Google/Apple/Dropbox/Office" is really the new version of "I kept all my work on my hard drive and didn't back it up". All of these companies have shown repeatedly that they will cut off your access with no notice for any or no reason and with no recourse. Cloud backups used to be a smart thing to do. Now they are a liability.

That take has a "victim blaming" vibe going on. Those texts were not lost, they were deleted. Yes, backups are a good idea, but we shouldn't just accept that kind of behaviour.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#56

Post by interglossa »

swarnie wrote: post #24
paxys wrote: post #6

"I keep all my work on Google/Apple/Dropbox/Office" is really the new version of "I kept all my work on my hard drive and didn't back it up". All of these companies have shown repeatedly that they will cut off your access with no notice for any or no reason and with no recourse. Cloud backups used to be a smart thing to do. Now they are a liability.

Sure, to us technically minded types who work in the industry. Do you think the average erotic fiction writer is keeping abreast (lol) of cloud data access + integrity news?

No. Dennis Cooper lost work this way years ago. They need to be aware of this and let some of their followers help them.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#58

Post by giantg2 »

glitchc wrote: post #51
giantg2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Cloud backups used to be a smart thing to do. Now they are a liability." If they're actually a backup they can be a good idea. If it's a single source, then yeah, it's asking for trouble. I even backup my GitHub stuff locally because who knows what could happen.

As long as your repos are up to date, they are already backed up. Did you mean that or something more explicit?

I'll back my local up to a USB or a drive at a specific working version.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#59

Post by cmrdporcupine »

How topical. My wife and I were having a freak out this morning about how vulnerable we are to having our lives choked out at Google's whims. They have no customer service, and delegate more and more to "AI" to manage these things.

This has all been giving me anxiety since the time I had my Facebook account partially locked for over a month because I shared a picture of my son at the beach with no shirt on and their "AI" couldn't tell the difference between him and a girl because he has long hair and somehow concluded I was sharing explicit imagery. When I appealed, they extended my lock.

I worked @ Google for 10 years and still wouldn't trust them even though I could possibly find someone on the inside to ring some bells for me (questionable).

I backed up all my photos recently and am trying to figure out what to do about email.

Re: Google suspends romance author's account for writing sexually explicit content

#60

Post by gcr »

kyrra wrote: post #44

The currently linked site is just a forum post, which links to Instagram, which is a screenshot of a discord chat. Instagram has the screenshots at least: https://www.instagram.com/sloan_spencer_author/p/C48JN_TrvxO... It does look like the author just lost access to docs they shared with others, not their entire account. Author is currently appealing. We have seen this kind of thing in the past. Drive has to be care…

Author’s last screenshot states that her whole account was frozen just after submitting the appeal and she no longer has access to her docs.

I would have far less of an issue with this if certain docs were marked unsharable, or even if her entire account could no longer share, but losing access to previous work written before the policy change feels like a big misstep to me.

Here’s what she said:

> “As of right now, I don't know. I cannot access any of mine to check at the moment Thankfully an alpha reader of mine saw it happening and I downloaded everything to my laptop before I submitted an appeal. Atter processing the appeal, a pop up said my account was frozen pending review. My assumption is after the review I'll either get everything back or lose it, but I don't know for sure.”

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