An update to storage policies across your Google Account • Hacker News Board

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#221

Post by testfoobar » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 11:56 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #147

It can be worse. I got a letter recently from a mutual fund saying I'd done nothing with my account for years, and if they didn't hear from me soon, they were going to hand it over to the government. (I'm a buy and hold, hold, hold, hold, investor.)

Same. I've been handed over to the "where is this investor" support team a couple of times. Sometimes they are just trying to sell me additional services.

Now, I make a point of logging into all my financial accounts a couple of times every year. Easy to forget retirment/mutual fund/insurance accounts.

1. Verify balances and look for any sign of fraud.

2. Verify contact information (address / phone / email).

3. Titling: As you get older, make sure you understand how your account is titled. Individual / POD / Joint / Joint WROS / Trust / etc. Each of these has specific consequences to you.

4. Beneficiaries: Similarly, make sure you understand the significance of submitting beneficiaries on your accounts.

Example: I missed updating an older account to include my new wife.

This is a good place to start: https://store.nolo.com/products/estate-planning-basics-espn....

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#222

Post by CobrastanJorji » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 11:56 PM UTC

This presents a really unfortunate new ending to the famous "Dear Sophie Lee" commercial.

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#223

Post by einpoklum » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 11:57 PM UTC

Google is a monopolistic behemoth of a company, which spies on you and profiles you up the wazoo, sharing its information with US government agencies and who knows who else.

It also biases, manipulates and censors searches and recommendations on its main websites, in various contexts which have been reported here on HN.

So, please try to avoid using any Google services, in particular their file storage.

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#224

Post by simias » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 11:57 PM UTC

pan69 wrote: post #42

What about Gmail accounts that forward email to another account? It's an account that is actively used but I never log into such account.

I do the same thing but I think it's all the same for Google, if you don't actively log into Gmail they can't know for sure that it's still being used. We'll just have to remember to log into the service once every other year.

I hope they'll bother to send a warning email at least.

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#225

Post by dannyw » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 11:59 PM UTC

fletchowns wrote: post #198

metric10 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be surprised if they did this for Workspace accounts. Deleting data from a organization would be a disaster for Google. I.e. an account may be at a center of a lawsuit or subject to data retention laws. Indeed, this says no: https://support.google.com/a/answer/38173?hl=en

Hmmm is my G Suite account different from a Workspace account? I got this email a few weeks ago saying I hadn't logged in for awhile and they were going to delete my data: https://i.imgur.com/XAEXQWb.png

Are you a paying customer?

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#226

Post by sokoloff » Thu, Dec 03, 2020, 11:59 PM UTC

m1117 wrote: post #207

t-writescode wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could log in to the email account you haven't given your kid yet?

Well, then you see all their personal information and photos....

But if you haven’t given it to them, is it really theirs? It’s yours with another name on it I’d think.

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#227

Post by simias » Fri, Dec 04, 2020, 12:00 AM UTC

sorenjan wrote: post #7

From the email I got from Google a few minutes ago: > Summary of the new policies (effective June 1, 2021): > • If you're inactive for 2 years (24 months) in Gmail, Drive or Photos, we may delete the content in the product(s) in which you're inactive. Google One members who are within their storage quota and in good-standing will not be impacted by this new inactive policy. > • If you exceed your storage limit for 2…

In the blog post they mention that they store over 4PB of data every single day, I can't blame them try trying to rationalize this a bit.

I'm really curious to know how much data they'll be able to expunge on January 1 2023, when the 24month deadline expires. It might end up being the biggest "rm" in computer history.

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#228

Post by einpoklum » Fri, Dec 04, 2020, 12:00 AM UTC

sedatk wrote: post #154

cbsks wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been very happy at Fastmail for the past few years. Their customer support has been quick and very helpful for me. It’s paid so I know that I am a customer and not a product. When I signed up I just forwarded my old gmail account to it. Now it sounds like I should finally update my email address for all the services still using it!

FastMail is probably the best among the bunch but it's still worse than GMail: - There is no "always display images from this contact" option if you don't want to load images automatically. You have to click on "show images" every time you read an emai, even from a trusted contact. - There is no "open mailto: links on FastMail" option on desktop. - Spam filter is too aggressive. I've missed too many legit mails while…

Most of this stuff is irrelevant once you start using a proper email client.

(except for the aggressive spam filter)

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#229

Post by Fifer82 » Fri, Dec 04, 2020, 12:01 AM UTC

indianhippie wrote: post #150

px43 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also a massive security hole. I needed to do a password reset on my old ebay account, but the hotmail account it was attached to was deleted, so I just created a new hotmail account with the same name, and reset my password. I've done this maybe three or four time, because I haven't used hotmail since high school, so they keep deleting it. A lot of people also have password resets on gmail linked to their old hotmail…

Definitely! A while back Yahoo! purged a ton of addresses and allowed individuals to signup with them to get unique/clean email handles. I was able to grab myfirstname@yahoo.com. The address looks neat. Since I’ve had that address, I’ve received password reset emails, bank documents, airline tickets and what not. Massive security hole is an understatement.

The old yahoo chat days were my favourite internet days.

I used to have a great friendship with people in "Hackers Lounge: 1" and everyone used to be 1337 for cracking original names like you said.

I got my first name, and a few friends and I had illegals like \\//\\//estside and H a C K e R and .oO(d00t) which weren't compatible with the email service.

It's a pity that a generation later, the internet meant facebook and not the kind of inquisitive fun I experienced! (maybe I should have played more sport lol).

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#230

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 » Fri, Dec 04, 2020, 12:02 AM UTC

dataflow wrote: post #4

> "If you're over your storage limit for two years, Google may delete your content across Gmail, Drive and Photos," the company said. That's different from just deleting all your data because you're inactive. Which is it? Edit: it seems both. Here's the blog post (maybe this is a better link): https://blog.google/products/photos/storage-policy-update/

I have read about users who are receiving someone else's mail. They have some account that has been set to forward mail. It then appears that either (a) Google assigns the address to someone else (perhaps due to inactivity) or (b) someone else keeps inadvertently typing this email address. The mail gets forwarded to some other user.

If this is true, this calls the whole notion of "Gmail security" (and more generally large third party email provider security) into question. Now think about all the changes Google makes in the name of "security". One misspelling or typo and it is all for naught. The mail is sent to another user.

Does it really make sense to use a free third party email provider like Google for important purposes. It seems like we are making identity theft even easier (not to mention online ad services). One thing we know is Google will not discourage use of Gmail for important matters linked to a real identity. They want more personal information, not less. Meanwhile Google discourages automated creation of accounts not linked to real identities, which would be safer if compromised.