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A Dad Took Photos of His Kid for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal

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Re: A Dad Took Photos of His Kid for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal

#81
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have one side of the story because the other side (huge corporation) didn’t give any information and decided to keep ban. No transparency there. Ps. This “we will never really know” is triggered me. This phrase used by Russian propaganda when they got caught in crimes every damn time.

> We have one side of the story because the other side (huge corporation) didn’t give any information and decided to keep ban. No transparency there. I'm not sure why we expect Google to provide transparency for CSAM bans/investigations. That would be highly irregular, and not just for Google. The Dad has legal path(s) to take if he feels he was truly wronged. Paths that would ultimately cost nothing if he prevailed.…

Really? What kind of paths? Gmail isn't a paid service - you can't force Google to continue providing you with Gmail access if they don't want to, I can't believe any court would agree to such a thing. They reserve the right to terminate your access for any reason,and since you don't have a business relationship with them in this case I wonder what could you possibly claim in front of the judge to make them reverse this decision by law.

Re: A Dad Took Photos of His Kid for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal

#82
post #7

Does getting your google account blocked prevent you from using GCP? There are so many stories of people losing access to google accounts that it seems way too risky to use GCP when this sort of thing can happen.

How does this work with Android mobile devices that are linked to that account?

From a non-technologist perspective, is a linked Android device becomes neutered?

Re: A Dad Took Photos of His Kid for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. There should be anti-monopoly regulation that would state that e-mail addresses belong to users, just like the phone numbers or domain names.

I own my domain and therefore my email address will belong to me as long as I can pay the property tax (ICANN) and management company (Fastmail).

They can ban you for no reason, just like google.

Re: A Dad Took Photos of His Kid for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal

#84

Stratechery covered this … they pointed out the really f*ed: part: Google is refusing to reinstate the account. Protecting children is important. AI is imperfect. But there is no reason the keep the account suspended once it’s clear there was no wrongdoing. This man is innocent of doing anything wrong. Google had suspended him, and removed access to all his online account data. And refuses to reinstate. We balance ou…

This is the part that should receive a Congressional inquiry. I would love to see Congress drag Sundar Pichai (and no one else) before them and scream “What the hell is wrong with you?” in his face. We have courts for a reason. They found no wrongdoing. Google is objectively deciding they know better than an elected court on what happened. This whole situation is absurd and evil.

Remember Google can ban any account at any time for any reason including because they just do not like you.

No Google software, devices, or data on their systems belongs to you. Sue them and they will remind you of this fact in detail.

If you want to own your digital life you will have to commit to being a pariah in your social circle that is ridiculed constantly for using open source tools.

Re: A Dad Took Photos of His Kid for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal

#85

Stratechery covered this … they pointed out the really f*ed: part: Google is refusing to reinstate the account. Protecting children is important. AI is imperfect. But there is no reason the keep the account suspended once it’s clear there was no wrongdoing. This man is innocent of doing anything wrong. Google had suspended him, and removed access to all his online account data. And refuses to reinstate. We balance ou…

IIRC there was a follow up which was arguably worse. Google implied that the account was suspended because of real CSAM concerns unrelated to the photos sent to the doctor/police officer (other photos in their account? they wouldn't go into details about their decision) and that the officer closing the case doesn't mean their judgement here is wrong. If that's the case I can understand why they're obstinate about the…

There is no reason for Google to not be lying about it.

Re: A Dad Took Photos of His Kid for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal

#86
post #7

Does getting your google account blocked prevent you from using GCP? There are so many stories of people losing access to google accounts that it seems way too risky to use GCP when this sort of thing can happen.

I don't know why people use gcp, I would like to hear some opinions. The way I see it, if you don't mind price, you go with AWS (most polished). If you mind price gcp isn't really much cheaper, so you go with something actually cheap like OCI.

OCI as in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure?

Re: A Dad Took Photos of His Kid for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal

#87
> After setting up a Gmail account in the mid-aughts, Mark, who is in his 40s, came to rely heavily on Google. He synced appointments with his wife on Google Calendar. His Android smartphone camera backed up his photos and videos to the Google cloud. He even had a phone plan with Google Fi.

His first mistake. He (and a whole bunch of others) forgot the principle of least privilege. The moment you start letting a company like google domesticate your usage patterns, you're essentially their bitch from that point onward. Better to keep all of their stuff compartmentalized

Re: A Dad Took Photos of His Kid for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal

#89
post #53
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy a domain name, now you have a portable email address.

Though I often have questions about how that works in terms of managing your domain. I feel like I shouldn't have the account I manage my domains with tied to an email address at the domain that's under management. If my email provider disappears, I'm potentially locked out of the account I need to log into in order to change the MX records, right?

Usually it’s just username/account number and password plus TOTP 2FA. Depending on country (?) they also have your postal address on file and can send you a reset password by letter. And you can specify an alternative email address like your work address, or a free email account that you only use for that purpose. Or you acquire two domains at different registrars where you can mutually use an email address at the other domain.

Re: A Dad Took Photos of His Kid for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal

#90
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We have one side of the story because the other side (huge corporation) didn’t give any information and decided to keep ban. No transparency there. I'm not sure why we expect Google to provide transparency for CSAM bans/investigations. That would be highly irregular, and not just for Google. The Dad has legal path(s) to take if he feels he was truly wronged. Paths that would ultimately cost nothing if he prevailed.…

Really? What kind of paths? Gmail isn't a paid service - you can't force Google to continue providing you with Gmail access if they don't want to, I can't believe any court would agree to such a thing. They reserve the right to terminate your access for any reason,and since you don't have a business relationship with them in this case I wonder what could you possibly claim in front of the judge to make them reverse t…

This isn't about a free GMail account...

From the article there appears to be an arbitration path (based on the dollar amount quoted in the article, but they talk about it like it would be a lawsuit) - but Dad explicitly chose not to take it for some reason.

It would be very surprising if the ToS for Google Accounts didn't include an arbitration agreement.

Also, Dad had a paid Google One account - filled with apparently lots of data. He definitely has a legal path here and chose not to take it. Why?

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