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Google banned me from Google Voice

dannyguo.com

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Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#11

Post by worble »

> Maybe I should actually try to vote with my wallet and switch to that iPhone, move my files from Google Drive to iCloud or Dropbox, and migrate to Fastmail. But I know Google can afford to simply not care.

Companies will quite literally treat you like dirt and people continue to use them. I understand there are certain things you're locked into (I very much use android despite google; not like there's much choice in a duopoly) but if they've already shown they don't care about you and you still use google search, chrome, gmail, GCP, storage, etc then that's on you.

Why would they change when you're willing to pay despite their crappy practices?

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#12

Post by elmerfud »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #3
elmerfud wrote: post #2

While people like to scream and lose their mind about who the president is and what they're blathering on about today it's this situation that I never see any politician talk about in a meaningful way and I never see get attention. This situation impacts the average person and has the potential to impact the average person more than who the president is at any given time. Because at least with governmental politics t…

[flagged]

Power shifts back and forth all the time and despite whether they have an R or a D beside their name how they view a particular issue seems to be very fluid on their political beliefs of the moment. Also considering that 80% of the government is reelected at the federal level every two years. If the people cared it would change. Politicians primary goal is to continue to remain in power the problem is that the people are not unified enough in having their expectations conveyed and then sticking to them.

Even outside of that the FTC is fully empowered to implement the protections that are needed right now without congresses involvement or the president. It's certainly not as strong as passing a law but they have the authority to regulate this stuff. As do state level utility boards.

I don't know how to make people care until it happens to them. Maybe someone on the inside who feels like we do that there should be better consumer protections around this will start banning some very popular politicians or other very famous people who can bring wide scale attention to this problem. I fear without the attention of someone famous getting knocked off and having to fight to get it back there will never be a change.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#13

Post by jtbayly »

He should be more mad, in my opinion.

It’s ludicrous that Google can simply kill your phone number and nobody bats an eye. It’s such a fundamental part of life at this point.

At the minimum, users should get a “We are no longer willing to provide you service. You have two weeks before service will end. Please switch your number to another provider if you want to keep it.”

Other than non-payment, are there other phone companies that simply disable your account without warning and without giving any reason?

I can imagine something like, "You are required to live in this geographic range, but the majority of the time you are outside of it.” Or “You are too expensive to continue to support” or any number of other things. But man, no warning, no reason, no recourse, disappear your phone access? That’s just plain bad.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#14

Post by reaperducer »

elmerfud wrote: post #2

While people like to scream and lose their mind about who the president is and what they're blathering on about today it's this situation that I never see any politician talk about in a meaningful way and I never see get attention. This situation impacts the average person and has the potential to impact the average person more than who the president is at any given time. Because at least with governmental politics t…

Until we demand that our government begin to prioritize consumer rights against these modern-day robber barons this kind of stuff will continue to happen.

Imagine what could happen if the modern-day robber barrons end up on the president's cabinet, making policy decisions.

Oh, wait… https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2024/08/19/trump-...

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#15

Post by lotsofpulp »

jtbayly wrote: post #13

He should be more mad, in my opinion. It’s ludicrous that Google can simply kill your phone number and nobody bats an eye. It’s such a fundamental part of life at this point. At the minimum, users should get a “We are no longer willing to provide you service. You have two weeks before service will end. Please switch your number to another provider if you want to keep it.” Other than non-payment, are there other phone…

> It’s ludicrous that Google can simply kill your phone number and nobody bats an eye.

It is Google’s phone number.

What is ludicrous is not having a federal US identity verification API such that phone numbers are not the end all be all.

Or that if the US government wants to use phone numbers for identity verification, they enact legislation to provide legal protections from losing it.

But I think leaders like the extrajudicial ability to nuke someone’s life if they need to. Same with bank accounts and know your customer laws that can lock you out for unknown reasons.

You wouldn’t want people to have access to a constitutionally protected electronic money account. Then they have less fear. And if you are someone important, then you contact someone in your network to help you out.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#17

Post by causal »

jtbayly wrote: post #13

He should be more mad, in my opinion. It’s ludicrous that Google can simply kill your phone number and nobody bats an eye. It’s such a fundamental part of life at this point. At the minimum, users should get a “We are no longer willing to provide you service. You have two weeks before service will end. Please switch your number to another provider if you want to keep it.” Other than non-payment, are there other phone…

Yup - the cost of the service does not matter, the dependency the service creates is what matters. Making someone dependent on a service is especially easy when it's free, and the incentives to do so are usually to create dependencies for the sake of data collection or upselling some other service.

If anything it is a paid service that can at least justify shutting down by no longer taking your money.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#18

Post by larme »

Try jmp.chat, you can use an XMPP client to receive phone calls and sms.

I use the following services:

- phone number: jmp.chat and a textnow number as backup

- email: fastmail

- search: kagi

- map: apple map

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#20

Post by bravura »

IANAL, but my understanding is that EU Digital Services Act (DSA) protects EU consumers against this lack of transparency for moderation/bans.

https://freedomhouse.org/article/eu-digital-services-act-win... "Providers of hosting services, including online platforms, now have an express legal obligation to provide clear and specific statements of reasons for their content moderation decisions. The DSA also empowers users to challenge such decisions through an out-of-court dispute settlement mechanism."

https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/16/24074933/european-union-d... "When it comes to content moderation, sites will have to provide a reason to users when their content or account has been moderated, and offer them a way of complaining and challenging the decision. There are also rules around giving users the ability to flag illegal goods and services found on a platform."

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