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The downside of One True Identity is getting your startup data deleted from account A because account B was booted from Google for unclear TOS violation. Usual

by nikanj 5y ago

The downside of One True Identity is getting your startup data deleted from account A because account B was booted from Google for unclear TOS violation. Usually these issues can only get resolved by getting your blog post to HN

blunte 5y ago
Do they? We heard the cries for help, and we assume in most cases a Googler here on HN champions the caller. In fact, I'd like to see some metrics, a transparency report of false positive blocks/deletions which were reversed. But indeed, I absolutely do not want my personal projects to be related in any way to my work projects, nor vice versa.
- thanksforfish 5y ago
  Surely there are people getting banned from Google who are not HN users. Social media outcry is not a good solution as its not accessible to everyone. Agreed about wanting to see more transparency.
- profmonocle 5y ago
  The fact that these stories go viral as often as they do suggests false positives are pretty common, and that the standard support channels are really, really bad at dealing with them. Whenever I read a story like this, complaining on social media was the company/user's desperate last resort, not their first step. For every user who gets saved by someone at Google seeing their story on HN or Twitter, how many users stay permabanned because they just aren't social media savvy enough (or lucky enough) to get traction? I would guess that the majority of false positive bans never get resolved.
profmonocle 5y ago
There was a horror story on Reddit a few years back, cross-posted to HN, where a single employee got their entire company's G Suite account banned for violating some Play Store policy using their work account. (as a consumer, not a dev) The horrifying part was that Google went on to ban every employee's personal account as well because they were "linked" to an account that was banned for TOS violations. Imagine losing access to your email, Android apps, and photo library because a coworker you may not even know broke some TOS. A Google employee entered the thread and said they were investigating, but notably ignored anyone asking "is it really Google's policy to ban people's personal accounts if their employer gets banned?" I was pretty happy when my company switched from G Suite to Office 365. (Amazon allegedly isn't free of these "guilt by association" practices - I've heard stories of people getting permabanned from Amazon because their roommate or family member returned too much stuff, since the delivery address was the same.)

by nikanj 5y ago

blunte 5y ago

Do they? We heard the cries for help, and we assume in most cases a Googler here on HN champions the caller. In fact, I'd like to see some metrics, a transparency report of false positive blocks/deletions which were reversed. But indeed, I absolutely do not want my personal projects to be related in any way to my work projects, nor vice versa.

thanksforfish 5y ago
Surely there are people getting banned from Google who are not HN users. Social media outcry is not a good solution as its not accessible to everyone. Agreed about wanting to see more transparency.
profmonocle 5y ago
The fact that these stories go viral as often as they do suggests false positives are pretty common, and that the standard support channels are really, really bad at dealing with them. Whenever I read a story like this, complaining on social media was the company/user's desperate last resort, not their first step. For every user who gets saved by someone at Google seeing their story on HN or Twitter, how many users stay permabanned because they just aren't social media savvy enough (or lucky enough) to get traction? I would guess that the majority of false positive bans never get resolved.

profmonocle 5y ago

There was a horror story on Reddit a few years back, cross-posted to HN, where a single employee got their entire company's G Suite account banned for violating some Play Store policy using their work account. (as a consumer, not a dev) The horrifying part was that Google went on to ban every employee's personal account as well because they were "linked" to an account that was banned for TOS violations. Imagine losing access to your email, Android apps, and photo library because a coworker you may not even know broke some TOS. A Google employee entered the thread and said they were investigating, but notably ignored anyone asking "is it really Google's policy to ban people's personal accounts if their employer gets banned?" I was pretty happy when my company switched from G Suite to Office 365. (Amazon allegedly isn't free of these "guilt by association" practices - I've heard stories of people getting permabanned from Amazon because their roommate or family member returned too much stuff, since the delivery address was the same.)