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Google users locked out after 15 years' use

businessinsider.com

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Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#451

Post by katbyte »

Mikho wrote: post #407
juskrey wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is OneDrive different in this sense?

Because MS Office is a different business than giving away free accounts to collect user data. It provides cloud services for money. I guess MS has much better redundancy mechanisms and pretty much committed to not lose your data. Well, shit happens sometimes even with people having the best intentions to do the right thing. Though I didn't hear about a single case of MS losing people's data. But I'm sure MS would ha…

One drive is no different, except the backing tech is definitely worse.from the article

> Others professed to have been barred from using Microsoft services,

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#452

Post by LorenPechtel »

I'd really like to see the law changed so that companies that keep your personal data have a legal requirement to make that data available for a period of time if they disconnect you.

I'd also like to see long term users have to be presented with exact details of what wrongdoing got them banned and some reasonable way to contest it. This would only apply to the big boys, not to the average website out there.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#453

Post by tarruda »

I've saw quite a few similar stories over the past years and this left me very scared. I've been a heavy user of google services for more than 15 years.

For some months now (maybe a year?) I've been trying to reduce dependency on google services and apps. It is a slow process, but I hope to get it done in the next year or so. Meanwhile I try to use google takeout as much as possible to keep up to date backups of my data.

My next step will be moving away from Gmail. Will probably register a domain so that I can have an address that is not tied to a specific cloud provider domain. Does anyone have a suggestion of an email provider I can use with custom domain?

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#455

Post by gabrielrdz »

est wrote: post #421

Separate your gmail, photos, youtube, play and adscense account. For me, I use a dedicated account for photo backups, and no interactions with any other google service. One gmail for interweb, one for IRL activities, one youtube acount for raging and one for my android with G Play. I don't have an adscense account yet but I've read many articles how linked adscense violations destroys your personal gmails.

Do you really think that they have no way to tell that it's you between all those accounts? I mean, there's no really a concept of account linking between Google Accounts, but between your IP being on all the accounts, and browser or device fingerprinting, I'm not sure this is really a reliable fail safe. It should be, but I doubt it.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#456

Post by [deleted] »

boringg wrote: post #445
varispeed wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a great blog that started getting me over $2000 per month from Google Ads (several million views), then suddenly after 3 months it dropped to $300 with the same amount of views and never gone up. No matter how much promo I did I would never get past $300. It seems like Google somehow put restriction on my account without any explanation. Eventually my blog died (also because Facebook capped organic reach of my…

I get the sense that this was related to the content of OP's blog. The fact that he was concerned that he would get blocked from gmail and facebook sounds like a level of paranoia, from my perspective, related to the content of the site that's why they didn't push farther. I do see how if you were naturally a paranoid individually you might be concerned about losing those connections, though seems high unlikely they…

[deleted]

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#457

Post by antsar »

novia wrote: post #202
names_are_hard wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why you need to own your domain. When they lock you out, you setup a new mailbox elsewhere and point your domain to it. That covers new mail. And the archives are still accessible because you've been forwarding mail all along.

you seem knowledgeable, is there a way to do this with every possible email address at your domain? Forward them all to that single other box?

Yes, and (for example) Fastmail allows you to do that very easily. So does Google if you prefer to keep the Gmail interface & are willing to pay for G Suite.

And, if your mail client’s UI allows, you can even send from @yourdoma.in to avoid disclosing your “real” address when you reply.

My favorite use-case: you sign up for foo.com with foo@yourdomain.com. Then foo sells their contact database, and now you’re getting viagra spam all day. Ok, just add a filter to auto-trash anything addressed to foo@, and the problem is solved.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#458

Post by gabrielrdz »

Are there cases where users have taken Google to court to get their data back in this case?

I've had my Gmail account since 2004 and I am also terrified about this. I ended up re-registering my custom domain and putting it on M365 but still... it feels like, as another commenter suggested, there should be laws to allow any customers that were banned or terminated from at least getting their data via Takeout

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#459

Post by thu2111 »

ckocagil wrote: post #448
_imba_ wrote: post #359

Not completely related to personal accounts being banned, but something that happened to me recently: I started a side business with some friends during lockdown. We created an online store selling some hard-to-get long tail items, and almost instantly got some traction and growth thanks to Google Shopping. A month ago we received one of these generic automated mails that our account is banned and we were misrepresen…

If this isn't evidence of a monopoly, I don't know what is.

Well, maybe monopoly in east Africa, but that's hardly surprising given the difficulty of doing business there.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#460

Post by gabrielrdz »

noneeeed wrote: post #261
grandpoobah wrote: post #147

This article finally prompted me to do what I should've done a long time ago, which is to create a Fastmail account and begin importing my Gmail into it. I've seen this story far too many times, and no longer will I say "yeah but it'll never happen to me". Setting up the import was insanely easy, and my Fastmail account is now configured to enable me to send using my Gmail address from directly within Fastmail. Plus…

This has been on my to-do list for too long. I need to do it this week. I also need to detach any accounts from using Google for signin. The next priority will be having a replica of my photo collection somewhere.

This. It is very comfortable to use Google OAuth sign in, even if you have a custom domain, but I've run into a few services that will not let you log on with user/password if you created the account via Single Sign On with Google, regardless if you use the same email.
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