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

consumerist.com

11–20 of 258 posts

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

#11
post #5

Google has a support problem. I'm amazed after almost a decade of offering services like email and advertising, they still haven't done anything to develop a reasonable support system for customers to address issues like this. Maybe they have a few open lines with their top 1% of customers but the attitude that "it's free, you are a meaningless statistic in our giant revenue stream so too bad" for the rest of their c…

[deleted]

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

#12

I use Backupify to at least maintain a copy of everything with a second, separate service, just in case. It's free at my volumes, and I think a prudent idea for those of us with everything in "the cloud".

I've been using them since their beta. While I haven't had need to download any of the backups, I'm grateful to know that if something were to happen I won't have lost access to my data.

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

#13
post #5

Google has a support problem. I'm amazed after almost a decade of offering services like email and advertising, they still haven't done anything to develop a reasonable support system for customers to address issues like this. Maybe they have a few open lines with their top 1% of customers but the attitude that "it's free, you are a meaningless statistic in our giant revenue stream so too bad" for the rest of their c…

But, see, the trouble here is that these users aren't customers. They're product sold to advertisers.

When I was spending a few million a year on AdWords, guess who had a direct line to Google, both via email and on the phone? I could talk to those guys whenever I wanted about campaigns, get advice on improving my keyword mix, budgeting strategies, any of that stuff.

From this business' point of view, individuals just don't matter. You could piss off hundreds or thousands of them and not make any dent on the bottom line, since they're not the ones who put money into Google's pockets and they're easily replaced.

The incentives are lined up in ways that, for the most part, work fine, but if you expect Google to care about you at the scale they operate, with the business mix they currently enjoy, you'd better be on the advertiser side of the equation.

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

#14
post #5

Google has a support problem. I'm amazed after almost a decade of offering services like email and advertising, they still haven't done anything to develop a reasonable support system for customers to address issues like this. Maybe they have a few open lines with their top 1% of customers but the attitude that "it's free, you are a meaningless statistic in our giant revenue stream so too bad" for the rest of their c…

I hate to be pithy, but if we aren't paying anything are we really customers? This isn't Google-specific, it's a side-effect of the services paid for by advertising model. I think it was Chomsky who said that newspapers don't sell news to people, they sell audiences to advertisers. It's fine because we get the news, but really we aren't the customer.

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

#15
post #6

Google+ makes getting backup of all your data really easy ( https://www.google.com/takeout/ ). I'm really worried about Google horror stories but I like using their services, so I'll just settle with doing regular backups.

Sounds like a great service. Then I went to use it... it doesn't backup email?! I got my contacts and some random stuff that I didn't know I had (and don't care about). But where's my couple of gigs of email? Is there a different service for that?

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

#16

I use Backupify to at least maintain a copy of everything with a second, separate service, just in case. It's free at my volumes, and I think a prudent idea for those of us with everything in "the cloud".

It's kind of hilarious and sad that, judging by their home page, it's possible to build a business on selling "In Case Google Stabs You In The Face" insurance.

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

#17
post #5

Google has a support problem. I'm amazed after almost a decade of offering services like email and advertising, they still haven't done anything to develop a reasonable support system for customers to address issues like this. Maybe they have a few open lines with their top 1% of customers but the attitude that "it's free, you are a meaningless statistic in our giant revenue stream so too bad" for the rest of their c…

Google made a decision not to provide human support because it isn't scalable. Google is doing quite well with the support system they have in place now, in terms of financial success and still with general consumer sentiment.

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

#19
post #6

Google+ makes getting backup of all your data really easy ( https://www.google.com/takeout/ ). I'm really worried about Google horror stories but I like using their services, so I'll just settle with doing regular backups.

Sounds like a great service. Then I went to use it... it doesn't backup email?! I got my contacts and some random stuff that I didn't know I had (and don't care about). But where's my couple of gigs of email? Is there a different service for that?

They provide IMAP and POP to let you download your email.

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

#20
post #6

Google+ makes getting backup of all your data really easy ( https://www.google.com/takeout/ ). I'm really worried about Google horror stories but I like using their services, so I'll just settle with doing regular backups.

Sounds like a great service. Then I went to use it... it doesn't backup email?! I got my contacts and some random stuff that I didn't know I had (and don't care about). But where's my couple of gigs of email? Is there a different service for that?

Yeah, just get a mail client and have it fetch your mail using POP. Make sure it runs every once in a while and you will have a backup of your gmail.
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