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Thanks HN: Lessons learned after Google nearly killed my site

uploader.win

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Re: Thanks HN: Lessons learned after Google nearly killed my site

#151
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m so sorry this happened to you. Can you show us the site?

The site is https://nextails.com/ I just ran ads with headlines like Nextjs + TailwindCSS Landing Pages Apparently somehow I ran afoul of their Circumventing Systems policy. I don't know how this qualifies and when I appealed they came back saying the same thing.

I hope this attracts attention from someone who knows more than I do, but I can’t see anything wrong with that. The arbitrary and immense power FAANG wields is fucking terrifying.

Re: Thanks HN: Lessons learned after Google nearly killed my site

#152
post #32

Can someone explain to my why Google isn't being drowned in a torrent of lawsuits? We are getting stories like this on a weekly basis now. Google is clearly causing measurable harm to your company and you. And apparently to thousands before you. Considering how much money patent trolls manage to extract from Big Tech with considerably weaker cases, how is it that everybody is treating Google like a fragile grandmothe…

In the UK at least, these consequences (website going offline / certificate warning / unsearchable in the search engine) would likely be deemed "pure economic loss" following Spartan Steel & Alloys Ltd v Martin & Co (Contractors) Ltd [1973] QB 27 and Murphy v Brentwood District Council [1991] 1 AC 398 where the Court of Appeal and House of Lords respectively held that unless some sort of physical harm was suffered to you or your property, the losses were held to be "purely economic" and so not recoverable in tort.

It's unlikely that any claimant would be able to show a contractual provision that enables them to claim for damages against Google (thus allowing them to sue in contract), so a cause of action for tort would be the usual way to sue Google - except unless Google makes you suffer some form of physical harm or damages your property, you're unlikely to be able to recover any damages for your website suffering these consequences, in the UK at least. I understand US law may be quite different.

There's a testable argument to be made about the requirement for "damage" to your property (the website) being inflicted by the certificate warning, but policy arguments on the matter of "ripple effect" liability makes it seem likely the courts would hold that Google isn't liable.

Also Google is probably far better placed to weather lawsuits than most ordinary people; they can probably afford to induce the other party to settle out of court, and presumably the relevant monopoly and abuse of market position laws only allow a regulator to take legal action (the ordinary consumer being restricted to contract and tort lawsuits).

Re: Thanks HN: Lessons learned after Google nearly killed my site

#153
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My very-much-not-a-lawyer understanding is that their legal obligations and liabilities are minimal on account of Gmail being offered free of charge. Anyone know if that's true?

Its the terms of service users agreed to. Prices not relevant

That doesn't sound right. If you charge money, you have to deliver a product that's fit for service. You can't take people's money then refuse to deliver.

At least here in the UK, EULAs that say You have no recourse if we completely fail to deliver are generally disregarded in court, as it should be.

Re: Thanks HN: Lessons learned after Google nearly killed my site

#154
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not useful for your current case, but I recommend using a password manager to fill random phrases for security questions. That way they’re easy to read out over the phone to CS reps, but are more secure than literal answers, which can often be derived from publicly available info.

Is there a password manager you recommend? I've never used one. Ty!

Have a look at bitwarden [0], it's open source and has a free tier.

[0] https://bitwarden.com/

Re: Thanks HN: Lessons learned after Google nearly killed my site

#155
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They only show the last two digits of the number. And I've only ever had two phone numbers in my life, and neither of them end with those digits.

Plus it is always a bad idea to give someone a code sent to your number. 99% of the time someone is trying to hack you and a necessary step is obtaining that code.

For me that actually ended up the only way to gain access back to an old account of mine. Luckily I was able to cooperate with the new owner of the number, and he was helpful enough to give me the code that was sent, otherwise I'd have lost a Google account with several hundred euros of purchases on it, despite having the password, control of the backup email, knowing all security questions, and knowing the exact date the account was registered (the only issue was that mobile carriers here re-issue phone numbers after 6 months without any calls, and I had put the SIM into a tablet).

Re: Thanks HN: Lessons learned after Google nearly killed my site

#156
post #49

Quick notes: Site owner has not confirmed they screened all uploaded content for malware - this is a major issue these days and google and others will flag you if you host viruses and pump out malware. And no - you cannot sue google to force them to allow users to be infected. It’s not clear that all customer content is hosted on a separate domain, and each customer on a separate sub domain . Your reputation will be…

> We never allow anything other than video and image files either. I would have thought this would be an excellent way to not host malware.

[deleted]

Re: Thanks HN: Lessons learned after Google nearly killed my site

#157
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The site is https://nextails.com/ I just ran ads with headlines like Nextjs + TailwindCSS Landing Pages Apparently somehow I ran afoul of their Circumventing Systems policy. I don't know how this qualifies and when I appealed they came back saying the same thing.

I hope this attracts attention from someone who knows more than I do, but I can’t see anything wrong with that. The arbitrary and immense power FAANG wields is fucking terrifying.

[deleted]

Re: Thanks HN: Lessons learned after Google nearly killed my site

#158
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The site is https://nextails.com/ I just ran ads with headlines like Nextjs + TailwindCSS Landing Pages Apparently somehow I ran afoul of their Circumventing Systems policy. I don't know how this qualifies and when I appealed they came back saying the same thing.

I hope this attracts attention from someone who knows more than I do, but I can’t see anything wrong with that. The arbitrary and immense power FAANG wields is fucking terrifying.

I hope so - thank you for the support! :)

Re: Thanks HN: Lessons learned after Google nearly killed my site

#159
post #32

Can someone explain to my why Google isn't being drowned in a torrent of lawsuits? We are getting stories like this on a weekly basis now. Google is clearly causing measurable harm to your company and you. And apparently to thousands before you. Considering how much money patent trolls manage to extract from Big Tech with considerably weaker cases, how is it that everybody is treating Google like a fragile grandmothe…

In the UK at least, these consequences (website going offline / certificate warning / unsearchable in the search engine) would likely be deemed "pure economic loss" following Spartan Steel & Alloys Ltd v Martin & Co (Contractors) Ltd [1973] QB 27 and Murphy v Brentwood District Council [1991] 1 AC 398 where the Court of Appeal and House of Lords respectively held that unless some sort of physical harm was suffered to…

What about simple libel? if google openly declare to people that your site harm them when it is not, isn't it a classic libel?

Re: Thanks HN: Lessons learned after Google nearly killed my site

#160

Anyone who thinks this is the functioning of a "normal" internet is mistaken. This is a symptom of a decades-in-the-making problem. It strongly appears those in charge of legislation are not technically minded and have no idea "how" the internet works. Or they do and they have data-sharing agreements with all the 'big tech' software and are okay to "appear" to legislate but cannot actually change anything substantial…

You’d think there would be a business opportunity for advocacy consulting, but I think the total lack of regulatory consequences for ruining people’s livelihoods renders that moot. FAANG can just ignore advocacy that isn’t backed by regulatory teeth.

I think if FAANG didn’t already control so much of our communications you might see such advocacy groups, but as it is...

Do you want to be the face of a campaign that will piss off FAANG?

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