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Every time this happens I think about reducing my dependence on google, however I'd love to be able to make this decision by evaluating the actual risk of this

Every time this happens I think about reducing my dependence on google, however I'd love to be able to make this decision by evaluating the actual risk of this happening. Does anyone know an estimate of how likely this is to happen to an individual on a per year basis? Obviously that risk will change as the organization changes, but if it's happening to a couple hundred good faith accounts a year I'd probably put it off for quite some time.

save_ferris 6y ago
> Does anyone know an estimate of how likely this is to happen to an individual on a per year basis? There's zero chance Google would ever volunteer this information, anything you see on here is probably a WAG at best.
ffpip 6y ago
7 billion people use Google. If you look at the likeliness of it happening to one guy out of 7 billion, it would be very, very small. But the problem is, once it is banned, you will probably lose a lot of important stuff permanently.
- bigbubba 6y ago
  Worse: This sort of thing has happened to a lot more than just one guy. One in seven billion is way too optimistic.
  - ffpip 6y ago
    You may have misunderstood. I didn't mean to say the likeliness of it happening to X6S1x6Okd1st is one in seven billion.
- Tipewryter 6y ago
  One guy out of 7 billion? I had exactly one Google account and I lost it - along with all data - too. So for me it is one out of one. No reason given. They just don't let me log in anymore.
- cycop 6y ago
  lol , 7 billion is way too high of an estimate of people actually using their free services to store valuable information. I would say closer to 70 million
  - ffpip 6y ago
    > I would say closer to 70 million I want to negotiate, but since you started with such a low number, it won't be worth it. 700 million people only from my country (India) would be a good start if you want to continue.
  - not2b 6y ago
    This article claims 1.8 billion users (though some people have more than one account): https://techjury.net/blog/gmail-statistics/ https://techjury.net/blog/gmail-statistics/
  - creddit 6y ago
    It’s probably closer to 70M but that’s probably absurdly off too. I bet there’s 70M people in the US alone who use Google services for valuable information. GMail alone is massive.
- X6S1x6Okd1st 6y ago
  > If you look at the likeliness of it happening to one guy out of 7 billion, it would be very, very small How small is the question.
swiley 6y ago
More likely you'll get locked out because account recovery now uses a heuristics based algorithm. This is what happened to me, thankfully I had nothing important on it.
- X6S1x6Okd1st 6y ago
  Yes that is also something I'd like to know the rate of.
thsowers 6y ago
Do you pay them or any of their subsidiaries for anything? I have cell service on Google Fi. Long, painful (still-ongoing) story short, they shipped me a Pixel 4a that had no cell service. I went back and forth with support for ten days. Then they shipped me a replacement phone. I confirmed my current address. They sent me a shipping notification for my current address. FedEx ended up delivering the package, no signature required, to a town I used to live in five years ago. I double checked and my current address is the only one on the account. Going back and forth with support has been useless. I paid for a phone that doesn't work, and I'm being charged for service that I can't use. My last recourse is to refute the payments with my CC company....but that also seems like the quickest way to get my entire Google/YT/Google Fi account locked up because it's all tied together.
- X6S1x6Okd1st 6y ago
  > Do you pay them or any of their subsidiaries for anything? Yes, one of the places that I back up photos is google photos and I pay them $ for that. I'm assuming you think that is an important thing to condition on? I am not planning on refuting any charges that google gives me any time soon and would try and back up all of my data before doing that.
  - thsowers 6y ago
    Then you are realistically fine Even in a case similar to mine, visiting takeout.google.com before doing anything with billing is always a great idea :)

save_ferris 6y ago

> Does anyone know an estimate of how likely this is to happen to an individual on a per year basis? There's zero chance Google would ever volunteer this information, anything you see on here is probably a WAG at best.

ffpip 6y ago

7 billion people use Google. If you look at the likeliness of it happening to one guy out of 7 billion, it would be very, very small. But the problem is, once it is banned, you will probably lose a lot of important stuff permanently.

bigbubba 6y ago
Worse: This sort of thing has happened to a lot more than just one guy. One in seven billion is way too optimistic.
- ffpip 6y ago
  You may have misunderstood. I didn't mean to say the likeliness of it happening to X6S1x6Okd1st is one in seven billion.
Tipewryter 6y ago
One guy out of 7 billion? I had exactly one Google account and I lost it - along with all data - too. So for me it is one out of one. No reason given. They just don't let me log in anymore.
cycop 6y ago
lol , 7 billion is way too high of an estimate of people actually using their free services to store valuable information. I would say closer to 70 million
- ffpip 6y ago
  > I would say closer to 70 million I want to negotiate, but since you started with such a low number, it won't be worth it. 700 million people only from my country (India) would be a good start if you want to continue.
- not2b 6y ago
  This article claims 1.8 billion users (though some people have more than one account): https://techjury.net/blog/gmail-statistics/ https://techjury.net/blog/gmail-statistics/
- creddit 6y ago
  It’s probably closer to 70M but that’s probably absurdly off too. I bet there’s 70M people in the US alone who use Google services for valuable information. GMail alone is massive.
X6S1x6Okd1st 6y ago
> If you look at the likeliness of it happening to one guy out of 7 billion, it would be very, very small How small is the question.

swiley 6y ago

More likely you'll get locked out because account recovery now uses a heuristics based algorithm. This is what happened to me, thankfully I had nothing important on it.

X6S1x6Okd1st 6y ago
Yes that is also something I'd like to know the rate of.

thsowers 6y ago

Do you pay them or any of their subsidiaries for anything? I have cell service on Google Fi. Long, painful (still-ongoing) story short, they shipped me a Pixel 4a that had no cell service. I went back and forth with support for ten days. Then they shipped me a replacement phone. I confirmed my current address. They sent me a shipping notification for my current address. FedEx ended up delivering the package, no signature required, to a town I used to live in five years ago. I double checked and my current address is the only one on the account. Going back and forth with support has been useless. I paid for a phone that doesn't work, and I'm being charged for service that I can't use. My last recourse is to refute the payments with my CC company....but that also seems like the quickest way to get my entire Google/YT/Google Fi account locked up because it's all tied together.

X6S1x6Okd1st 6y ago
> Do you pay them or any of their subsidiaries for anything? Yes, one of the places that I back up photos is google photos and I pay them $ for that. I'm assuming you think that is an important thing to condition on? I am not planning on refuting any charges that google gives me any time soon and would try and back up all of my data before doing that.
- thsowers 6y ago
  Then you are realistically fine Even in a case similar to mine, visiting takeout.google.com before doing anything with billing is always a great idea :)