Google has a long-standing reputation as inadequate support for developers – especially if you are a small, independent studio or team. But the company’s general customer service is also lacking, and today’s horror story is the kind that’s likely to encourage a Google Takeout backup, just in case. Last night, one customer’s Google Account was completely disabled. They claim that the entire contents of their Google account, without any warning and no explanation – email, photos, Google Pay balance, even the ability to pay their internet account via Google Fiber and mobile account via Google Fi – without ceremony was raptured.
What happened?
Take it all in with a grain of salt, because we can never be sure we’ll get the full story, but the details we have are frightening.
Last night, the email above was sent to a Google customer named Chris, in which he explained that his Google Account had been disabled because “it appears to have been used in a way that seriously violates Google’s policies.” The email came while they were sleeping, and no additional information about the reason for the suspension of the account was provided. Chris thought it must have happened wrong, but it was denied, leaving him with no apparent options and no access to the decade-old Google account.
For some of us, it may just be a slight inconvenience, but Google’s services are plentiful and ongoing. If you are blocked outside of your Google Account and the only business service you use is Gmail, you may lose access to your email, but Chris was much more deeply invested in using Google Fi for phone service, Google Fiber for internet access, Google Pay to pay off debt, Google Drive for school and work and Google Photos for photo backup. It in no way enabled him to pay phone or internet bills, not access to his Google Pay balance, and with almost a decade of photos and documents. And even the basic loss of email access is a major problem right now – Chris, like many of us during the pandemic, is unemployed and unable to respond to job applications while out of account.
In addition, email is often used for two-factor verification, including financial services and healthcare. This loss of access to email accounts could also mean that third-party services that are completely unrelated to Google could be affected, and Chris could temporarily lose access to doctor as well as bank due to Google’s actions.
Forget identity theft or burglary, you have a new digital horror
Most of us probably think that the biggest internet service nightmare we can suffer is identity theft or burglary (and there we also heard some digital horror stories), but this simple, one-sided action by Google can be very devastating to us . lives, which equates to the destruction of all our digital property accepted by service, if we are not wise enough to make regular backups. And unfortunately, it is also becoming commonplace.
@Google my account has now been disabled for more than 3 weeks. I still do not know why, and after using every resource to solve it, you did nothing but give me the ongoing decision.
– Andrew Spinks (@Demilogic) 8 February 2021
Just last month, Terraria developer Andrew Spinks was also locked out of his Google account for violating YouTube’s terms of service. The action led to the temporary cancellation of its hugely popular game for Google’s gameplay platform Stadia. While Spinks has had enough influence to draw attention to the matter and seek clarity on Google’s issue and solution, others are not so happy.
A few years ago in 2019, Google account handouts were largely handed out to hundreds of users for interaction in a YouTube series of your choice. While viewers were warned that Google’s spambot detection was likely to be a problem if they were too enthusiastic about their participation, some did not take the warning seriously enough, and the YouTuber behind the broadcast even had to step in to warn its viewers help search. a solution.
All of this ignores the many smaller account suspensions that are silent all the time, leaving customers screaming in Google’s automated void. In many cases, customers may not even know why their accounts have been suspended – Google never tells them so.
The same goes for Chris, who tells us that the reason behind the suspension is a mystery. In some cases, Google sets up an account to help the account holder themselves – if hacked, for example, it can protect their data. But the closest Chris has to a statement is a late-night backup set up by Google’s Backup and Sync tool, set at the time of day to save bandwidth, and set a record made from video editing projects, which may contain copyrighted music, although not shared.
Saw this tweet and then spent the next hour setting up sync clients for Google Drive and Google Photos.
– Gabriel Samfira (@gabriel_samfira) March 8, 2021
It remains to be seen if Chris will ever hear more about this. He claims he can not find a “right person” to explain what happened, and customers’ associates, after whom they spoke, simply point to Google’s support site. We contacted Google for more information on this particular case and the practice of the company’s account suspension in general, but an answer was not immediately available. At the moment, Chris claims that he “thanked myself because the bill was probably over forever.”
Fortunately, Chris has raised a big enough stink about Reddit and Twitter to attract attention so that Google will possibly address their individual case with greater transparency, but not everyone is so happy. In the meantime, I know I’ll back up my own Google Account data tonight, and I recommend that you do the same.