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Google marked https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/ as unsafe

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Re: Google marked https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/ as unsafe

#11

Post by midenginedcoupe »

asu_thomas wrote: post #9
midenginedcoupe wrote: post #4

This bot's behaviour made me drop all Google products. A few years ago it marked my company's entire domain as unsafe without any reason. Any human would have been able to tell the flag was incorrect, but "algorithm says no". There is no team in Google to escalate to, no team managing this service, and no way to get an incorrect flag lifted in anything like an acceptable timeframe. In the meantime, Gmail just silentl…

> no way to get an incorrect flag lifted in anything like an acceptable timeframe Define "acceptable timeframe"

Surely you'd agree that breaking a government service for 3 entire days is unacceptable!?

Ideally they'd have an SLA measured in hours, the lower the better. Like 1. Because the consequences of their bot flagging a domain are so severe, both in terms of availability and in reputational damage.

If you're about to submit commercially sensitive information to a company providing a service on behalf of your government and instead you see a massive red screen that screams of dire consequences of using that site, how likely would you go back and try again later? They need to be damned sure they're right, and to provide a quick way to resolve false flags.

Instead the only answer I got from Google was "lol, no".

Re: Google marked https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/ as unsafe

#12

Post by Am4TIfIsER0ppos »

asu_thomas wrote: post #9
midenginedcoupe wrote: post #4

This bot's behaviour made me drop all Google products. A few years ago it marked my company's entire domain as unsafe without any reason. Any human would have been able to tell the flag was incorrect, but "algorithm says no". There is no team in Google to escalate to, no team managing this service, and no way to get an incorrect flag lifted in anything like an acceptable timeframe. In the meantime, Gmail just silentl…

> no way to get an incorrect flag lifted in anything like an acceptable timeframe Define "acceptable timeframe"

1 picosecond is the acceptable time frame for google to block my connections to someone's server. I don't need their permission to visit. It is why I turned off the feature the first time I got a red screen in 2010 or thereabouts.

Re: Google marked https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/ as unsafe

#14

Post by retrac »

midenginedcoupe wrote: post #4

This bot's behaviour made me drop all Google products. A few years ago it marked my company's entire domain as unsafe without any reason. Any human would have been able to tell the flag was incorrect, but "algorithm says no". There is no team in Google to escalate to, no team managing this service, and no way to get an incorrect flag lifted in anything like an acceptable timeframe. In the meantime, Gmail just silentl…

Not a lawyer and not legal advice, but isn't labelling something malware -- that isn't malware -- libel? I'm wondering if you could sue them for defamation.

Re: Google marked https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/ as unsafe

#15

Post by duped »

retrac wrote: post #14
midenginedcoupe wrote: post #4

This bot's behaviour made me drop all Google products. A few years ago it marked my company's entire domain as unsafe without any reason. Any human would have been able to tell the flag was incorrect, but "algorithm says no". There is no team in Google to escalate to, no team managing this service, and no way to get an incorrect flag lifted in anything like an acceptable timeframe. In the meantime, Gmail just silentl…

Not a lawyer and not legal advice, but isn't labelling something malware -- that isn't malware -- libel? I'm wondering if you could sue them for defamation.

Yea, the remedy for this isn't an email to support. It's a letter to their legal from your legal.

Re: Google marked https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/ as unsafe

#16

Post by pevey »

midenginedcoupe wrote: post #4

This bot's behaviour made me drop all Google products. A few years ago it marked my company's entire domain as unsafe without any reason. Any human would have been able to tell the flag was incorrect, but "algorithm says no". There is no team in Google to escalate to, no team managing this service, and no way to get an incorrect flag lifted in anything like an acceptable timeframe. In the meantime, Gmail just silentl…

I'm not saying this is acceptable in any way... But there IS something you can try to get resolved fairly quickly if it ever happens again.

Be sure to claim domain ownership in the Google search console. If there is a flag of some sort, it will show up there. And you can address it there.

I worked for a financial services company where this happened. The public-facing .com domain was set up first, before I got there. Later, I added the .net domain behind zero trust to serve as our entry point for internal apps. Google marked the .net as a phishing domain. Verifying ownership of both under the same google search console account and then contesting the flag got it removed.

Re: Google marked https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/ as unsafe

#17

Post by circuit10 »

slaw wrote: post #8
circuit10 wrote: post #6

Even Firefox blocks it for me, they're using Google Safe Browsing too apparently

> Firefox blocked this page... > Advisory provided by Google Safe Browsing. Firefox clearly says it is using Google.

Yes, I said in my comment that “they're using Google Safe Browsing too apparently”

Re: Google marked https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/ as unsafe

#18

Post by midenginedcoupe »

pevey wrote: post #16
midenginedcoupe wrote: post #4

This bot's behaviour made me drop all Google products. A few years ago it marked my company's entire domain as unsafe without any reason. Any human would have been able to tell the flag was incorrect, but "algorithm says no". There is no team in Google to escalate to, no team managing this service, and no way to get an incorrect flag lifted in anything like an acceptable timeframe. In the meantime, Gmail just silentl…

I'm not saying this is acceptable in any way... But there IS something you can try to get resolved fairly quickly if it ever happens again. Be sure to claim domain ownership in the Google search console. If there is a flag of some sort, it will show up there. And you can address it there. I worked for a financial services company where this happened. The public-facing .com domain was set up first, before I got there.…

This evidently doesn't work for all flags. Your own experience != all other peoples' experience.

My domain ownership was already registered even before it was flagged. I _think_ it was the search console I used to request a review of the flag. But it still took that long to resolve.

This wasn't an issue of not realising what had happened for 3 days, it was 3 days after letting Google know they'd got it wrong. And spending hours on the phone to anyone I could get hold of to try to escalate etc.

Re: Google marked https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/ as unsafe

#19

Post by midenginedcoupe »

asu_thomas wrote: post #9
midenginedcoupe wrote: post #4

This bot's behaviour made me drop all Google products. A few years ago it marked my company's entire domain as unsafe without any reason. Any human would have been able to tell the flag was incorrect, but "algorithm says no". There is no team in Google to escalate to, no team managing this service, and no way to get an incorrect flag lifted in anything like an acceptable timeframe. In the meantime, Gmail just silentl…

> no way to get an incorrect flag lifted in anything like an acceptable timeframe Define "acceptable timeframe"

It's beside the point, but is it just me that finds this reply really quite rude? You wouldn't jump in to someone's conversation with such a demand, especially in response to them recounting an experience that was stressful to them and had consequences for the fledgeling company they'd founded at great personal expense?
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