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I used to use google docs until they randomly locked one of the docs I was working on for a week due to one of their "suspicious activity" scripts. Really hamme

I used to use google docs until they randomly locked one of the docs I was working on for a week due to one of their "suspicious activity" scripts. Really hammered in the message that if you don't host it then you don't own it.

chrischen 7y ago
I think the issue is you aren’t paying for it, so you don’t own it. Paid hosted services cannot pull this crap.
- oefrha 7y ago
  Paid hosted services can and do pull this crap, and it’s not just Google. “Digital Ocean killed our company” https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064169 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064169
  - leonidasv 7y ago
    At least DO was responsible, transparent and disclosured the bug for the public. After reading through the post, I've felt much more confident to use their services, specially after that comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20119939 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20119939 Big G's policy is to lock you, provide no further comments and no contact link.
    - oefrha 7y ago
      “Transparency” due to blowup of bad publicity on HN. They’re simply not big enough to ignore this audience. They wouldn’t have given a damn if they were, just like they ignored many cases that didn’t blow up.
      - komali2 7y ago
        Sure, fine, but Google blows up hn here and there with horror stories but because of search and I guess the fact that 2024 is when they're possibly nuking cloud anyway, the companies in question still got deleted. What's the alternative you're proposing? Are you just saying Cloud Bad?
- franga2000 7y ago
  Paid G suite can and does pull this crap. There was a comment on HN a year-ish ago, when someone's entire ~100 person company (almost?) went out of business because Google flagged the personal Gmail of the domain admin, this "spread" to their company email, Google closed it and losing the admin account made the entire domain get deleted. Not "blocked" or "pending review" - deleted! IIRC even pulling personal favors at Google couldn't save them.
  - gvjddbnvdrbv 7y ago
    Do you have a link to this story?
    - manigandham 7y ago
      Here's a few: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17115643 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17115643 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19124324 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19124324 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19432702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19432702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21247759 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21247759
      - londons_explore 7y ago
        Google's main problem here is they can't tell their side of the story. If only they had some process where a customer could agree to have Google publicly explain why an account was banned, I think we'd see many more explanations along the lines of "This customer was using Google cloud to launch Ddos attacks" or "This customer sent bomb threats to the president".
        manigandham 7y ago
        How is that a problem? What's stopping them? Google can easily write blog posts or release post mortems or have the dozens of PMs that visit HN talk about it. Considering these links are all about people with valid businesses and apps, I doubt your examples apply for violations.
- manigandham 7y ago
  Quite a lot of paid services have done exactly this. They use vague all-encompassing terms of service designed to give them complete control. Pretty much anything can be used as a violation of those terms, allowing them to keep your money while also blocking all access and even deleting your data. Very few customers have the legal and financial resources to unblock this if it does happen.
komali2 7y ago
That's actually kinda nice of them. Instead of waiting till we were totally and completely locked in to play big bad wolf, they've done it earlier while there's still time to get the message out.

chrischen 7y ago

I think the issue is you aren’t paying for it, so you don’t own it. Paid hosted services cannot pull this crap.

oefrha 7y ago
Paid hosted services can and do pull this crap, and it’s not just Google. “Digital Ocean killed our company” https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064169 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064169
- leonidasv 7y ago
  At least DO was responsible, transparent and disclosured the bug for the public. After reading through the post, I've felt much more confident to use their services, specially after that comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20119939 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20119939 Big G's policy is to lock you, provide no further comments and no contact link.
  - oefrha 7y ago
    “Transparency” due to blowup of bad publicity on HN. They’re simply not big enough to ignore this audience. They wouldn’t have given a damn if they were, just like they ignored many cases that didn’t blow up.
    - komali2 7y ago
      Sure, fine, but Google blows up hn here and there with horror stories but because of search and I guess the fact that 2024 is when they're possibly nuking cloud anyway, the companies in question still got deleted. What's the alternative you're proposing? Are you just saying Cloud Bad?
franga2000 7y ago
Paid G suite can and does pull this crap. There was a comment on HN a year-ish ago, when someone's entire ~100 person company (almost?) went out of business because Google flagged the personal Gmail of the domain admin, this "spread" to their company email, Google closed it and losing the admin account made the entire domain get deleted. Not "blocked" or "pending review" - deleted! IIRC even pulling personal favors at Google couldn't save them.
- gvjddbnvdrbv 7y ago
  Do you have a link to this story?
  - manigandham 7y ago
    Here's a few: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17115643 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17115643 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19124324 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19124324 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19432702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19432702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21247759 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21247759
    - londons_explore 7y ago
      Google's main problem here is they can't tell their side of the story. If only they had some process where a customer could agree to have Google publicly explain why an account was banned, I think we'd see many more explanations along the lines of "This customer was using Google cloud to launch Ddos attacks" or "This customer sent bomb threats to the president".
      - manigandham 7y ago
        How is that a problem? What's stopping them? Google can easily write blog posts or release post mortems or have the dozens of PMs that visit HN talk about it. Considering these links are all about people with valid businesses and apps, I doubt your examples apply for violations.
manigandham 7y ago
Quite a lot of paid services have done exactly this. They use vague all-encompassing terms of service designed to give them complete control. Pretty much anything can be used as a violation of those terms, allowing them to keep your money while also blocking all access and even deleting your data. Very few customers have the legal and financial resources to unblock this if it does happen.

komali2 7y ago

That's actually kinda nice of them. Instead of waiting till we were totally and completely locked in to play big bad wolf, they've done it earlier while there's still time to get the message out.