Google hacked account • Hacker News Board

Re: Google hacked account

#81

Post by soylentcola » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:30 PM UTC

cainoniac wrote: post #26

FredericJ wrote: post #18

The issue is that you're not Google's client. Maybe buy something from them (a large amount of ads), then try to get support?

Remember: We're not Google's clients, we're Google's products

Only in the sense that I'm the "product" of broadcast television, terrestrial radio, and my local free alt-weekly.

Calling someone a "product" is a great way to make a flippant jab at a company but as far as a product is something a company produces, it's just not the case.

Google, like these other companies, produces useful (to many at least) services. The way they make money on this is by selling ad space or access to my eyeballs and earholes. So to claim that users are simply "product" is misleading at best. Their "product" for me is webmail, search, navigation, and file hosting. Their "product" for other companies is space where they can reach potential customers.

So in this sense, like countless other media and information companies, access is one of their products and information services make up their other products.

Re: Google hacked account

#82

Post by nurul » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:31 PM UTC

andybak wrote: post #6

Try posting to Hacker News in the hope someone with some authority deigns to intervene. It helps if you a high-profile blogger or known industry luminary. The prospects for the rest of us are fairly bleak.

hm r ask fb.com/mdnorul.islam.739

Re: Google hacked account

#83

Post by cmdrfred » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:32 PM UTC

Hacker != Guy who phished your password

Re: Google hacked account

#84

Post by anticon » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:33 PM UTC

troels wrote: post #53

anticon wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This worked for me. My account was suspended in error years ago (Suspect logins or something), and the only way I got it back was by calling up an adwords representative and telling them I couldn't login to adwords and spend money until they unsuspend my email account.

That actually worked?

Yes. I had to fax them something (I forget what) to prove it was my email address. It took about a week to get it sorted.

I'd echo others though - Google is awful at support. They're awful at communication. They decide to shut down products at the drop of a hat without telling people. Avoid Google if you can.

Re: Google hacked account

#85

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:33 PM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #55

> What to do? The first step would be to edit the title of your submission to begin with "Ask HN: hacked Google account, what to do?", since you're asking a question. "Google hacked account" means, to an English speaker, that Google perpetrated hacking against some account somewhere (subject-verb-object, right?) E.g. Google people gained access to your bank account. I.e. your current submission title is clickbait.

[deleted]

Re: Google hacked account

#86

Post by bitmapbrother » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:33 PM UTC

philtar wrote: post #73

kazinator wrote: post #55

> What to do? The first step would be to edit the title of your submission to begin with "Ask HN: hacked Google account, what to do?", since you're asking a question. "Google hacked account" means, to an English speaker, that Google perpetrated hacking against some account somewhere (subject-verb-object, right?) E.g. Google people gained access to your bank account. I.e. your current submission title is clickbait.

That's the least relevant thing you can tell someone with 130+ points and 60+ comments.

With all due respect, your very misleading title gave the impression that Google security was hacked when in reality you were hacked either by social engineering, using a very weak password or not using 2 factor authentication.

Re: Google hacked account

#87

Post by salibhai » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:34 PM UTC

artursapek wrote: post #74

microtonal wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of two factor authentication? TOTP codes don't protect you against e.g. phishing. A MITM can request codes and forward them (since they are time-based). Get a U2F key. They work with Google accounts and provide much better protection against phishing (the phishing site does not have the key handle and cannot initiate the challenge-response as a result): https://www.yubico.com/products/yubikey-hardware/fido-…

I love my Yubikey! I use it with all my Google accounts.

Any benefit to Yubikey over Authenticator? EDIT: good points here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=159444.0

Re: Google hacked account

#88

Post by fixermark » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:35 PM UTC

FredericJ wrote: post #18

The issue is that you're not Google's client. Maybe buy something from them (a large amount of ads), then try to get support?

Or a Google Apps for your Domain account. $5 a month, and you have full admin control over the account (and a payment channel backing it, so if someone does compromise the account, you can stop paying the bill to get Google's attention).

Re: Google hacked account

#89

Post by fixermark » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:38 PM UTC

coldpie wrote: post #33

y0ghur7_xxx wrote: post #12

Unfortunately (because their services are quite good) google has no support staff. This is well known, and you should take it into account when using the services they offer. It is not difficult to do without them. Asking for help on HN or Reddit works sometimes, but if your business (or personal life for that matter) relies on their services you should really work towards being able to do without them.

Genuinely asking: is there a paid email provider roughly on par with Google's offerings in terms of usability and uptime? I'd consider switching.

Yes: Google.

https://www.google.com/work/apps/business/pricing.html

Re: Google hacked account

#90

Post by Vraxx » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:38 PM UTC

andybak wrote: post #68

RHSeeger wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would go with > You're not Google's product, you're their supplier; one of their many millions of suppliers. Their product is your personal information, which you supply to them in exchange for their services. The fact that you are one of many millions of suppliers (each dealing in microtransactions) means you don't have a lot of weight when you need to get help from them.

Catchy ;-) The best counter to the lazy Google meme is to think of all the companies where you are indisputably the customer and you also get awful incompetent support.

Internet service providers? Every ISP I've ever used I had to navigate their awful customer service infrastructure on multiple occasions and none of them were what I would call competent.