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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

#511

Post by etripe »

kylebenzle wrote: post #444
londons_explore wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work on adsense. There is no facility for an "earnings cap". Your revenue is the literal sum of earnings from every click on your property. While ads are showing and being clicked on, you will always be earning more. If I were to guess, you failed to implement ads.txt and/or your content didn't meet the standards required by some big advertisers, so auction pressure was very low for your site.

But people will always prefer to blame others and when you can blame a corporation for your problems its always an easier target.

While there is truth in your statement, can you be sure it applies to the GP's story?

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#513

Post by mitchdoogle »

cm2187 wrote: post #243
_jjca wrote: post #60

This is genuinely scary. Photos, Yale locks, Fi, WiFi and Nest thermostat can all be poof gone because I made a silly YouTube comment? How is this not regulated? Google photos also 'helpfully' offers to delete your uploaded photos with 'some guarantee'!!! If this isn't an indication of a giant shitty monopoly that doesn't care about its customers at all, I don't what is. They have some AI ML fucking crap but can't fi…

If you are a “customer”. How many people pay for google services? I know it’s kind of jerky but I still agree that if you aren’t paying for the service, you have no leg to complain about it.

Why should people have to pay money for a product to expect fair treatment? Is an exchange of services without money not subject to rules and regulations? Google chooses not to charge people because they've found it more beneficial to offer many of them for free. It's a model many tech companies have followed to great success. That doesn't mean they should have free reign to do whatever they please.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#514

Post by piyh »

Covzire wrote: post #437
_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…

I wonder how vulnerable Google's practices are to corruption. Say you've got your new business on the up swing and one of your competitors has a friend at Google who they offer a bribe to shut down your entire business, at least for a few weeks under dubious or non existent reasons. Seems like an extremely easy way to make copious amounts of shady cash if you've got that magic ban button at Google.

I'd imagine the average googler isn't going to be easily bribed compared to the alternative of finding some darknet service to figure out how to trigger an automatic ban by uploading malware to the site.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#515

Post by ycombonator »

Move to paid accounts like iCloud email or fastmail, protonmail for critical use cases. iCloud email is free for all ios users and fastmail and protonmail cost pennies per day. Primary email has become something akin to having a phone number these days. Lots of consumer services use email for authorization.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#516

Post by hedora »

blunte wrote: post #158
kioleanu wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just connect your Google account in the Fastmail settings and they set everything automatically

I wonder how long this will last until Google finds a way to prevent the migration out...

From what I can tell, it just uses standard protocols like IMAP (at least, it did when I moved from a non-gmail provider to it).

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#518

Post by aperrien »

thu2111 wrote: post #466
VLM wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The issue seems to me that it's a global ban. Global bans "seem" to be new. I've read many stories of shell scripts randomly permanently banning android developers for life from their platform, but those stories always involved being banned from the play console and so forth, not being banned from search / maps / gmail / youtube / etc. It seems to be news that if you tell people in public youtube comments that you…

I used to work at Google on stuff related to account bans. Global bans are not new. They were standard a decade ago. The reason is due to the structure of the various spam/abuse industries that plague any service that allows user generated content. What happens is this: 1. Accounts get harder to create as signup security improves 2. Black/grey-market account sellers come in and start creating accounts that get bought…

Then what you do is set up some sort of monetary charge, to verify that the person you are dealing with is real. Someone willing to pay for support is highly likely to be an actual customer, not a fraudster; and you can even have their local bank or notary to verify their identity, if you are worried about identity theft.

This is a problem that is largely solved at government scale, which is what Google is now, and there's no reason not to take advantage of existing infrastructure to do so.

Re: Google users locked out after 15 years' use

#519

Post by ciarannolan »

gitweb wrote: post #501
bdcravens wrote: post #496

My gut feeling is that I feel Microsoft is more trustworthy than Google at this point. Is it just me? Also isn't it funny how we are willing to pay $100+ a month for an iPhone or premium Android with service, yet many balk at the idea of $5/month for a more trustworthy email option? (not saying MSFT is it necessary; there's multiple paid alternatives to Gmail)

Its just you. Also there is no such thing as paying for a more trustworthy email option. If people send mass emails or spam that violates the ToS you'll get blocked no matter who your provider is.

That's not the issue here though. The issue is that people who _don't_ do those things still get permabanned by Google with zero recourse.

When you pay for something like Fastmail, you get a human within hours to help solve the problem.

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