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This is disappointing, albiet not that surprising. It's a good reminder to not rely on Google for long term storage of anything you care about. It's not uncommo
by rurp 3y ago
This is disappointing, albiet not that surprising. It's a good reminder to not rely on Google for long term storage of anything you care about. It's not uncommon for inidivduals in poor health to go through multi-year stretches of very limited activity, especially for elderly individuals. In the future, people in that situation, or their relatives, might be surprised to find a Google account they thought was secure no longer exists.
- bombcar 3y agoIt's not just poor health, there's an entire subclass of Americans who don't have internet access for 2 years+ - most anyone in the prison system. Now as a secret unmentionable for any 2+ year sentence: lose access to all your google shit.
- skissane 3y agoThey can give their password to a trusted friend/family member, and have them log in once every few months to keep the account active. Yes, it’s a pain, what if they forget, etc, but it means a 2+ year sentence does not necessarily entail losing one’s account. Could someone start a subscription paid service for the incarcerated - “we keep your accounts alive while you are inside”? More broadly, could provide other “manage your affairs for you while you are incarcerated” services. I suppose many incarcerated people would have no income or assets to pay for it, but some would, or their family might be willing to pay for it.
- echelon 3y agoSeems like an opportunity (sadly) for a service to manage these things. Google isn't the only provider that would need regular logins. Twitter, Twitch, etc. have account inactivity policies.
- bombcar 3y agoHell, the local police will probably happily login to your email whilst you're in jail, just sign away your 4th and 5th while you're at it ... It's one more thing you have to know to think about - though if the system counts automated logins as logins, then maybe fetchmail has a purpose again.
- tuukkah 3y agoYes, let's profit from their misery and invest some of the proceeds to lobby for policies that secure and further grow this customer segment. /s
- skissane 3y agoYou make it sound like the only possible motivation a person might have to start such a business would be to exploit the incarcerated. What if the founder is a former inmate, and says “I wish there was something like that available when I was on the inside?” Even if the business is officially classified as “for-profit”, there’s a big difference between a business seeking a living wage for its founders and employees versus one trying to make as much money as possible. In fact, it could even be owned by a charity - sometimes charities start 100% owned for-profit businesses, not because they want immense returns, but simply because sometimes the legal constraints on a charity can be too limiting, but a for-profit subsidiary isn’t subject to them I have no interest in starting such a business myself, anyway.
- prophesi 3y agoIt's a large nation-wide industry, so I imagine at some point during the business's growth, the founder may be bought out, or the oversight of corporate management lets profit drive the decisions in its various departments.
- skissane 3y agoIt is possible if you design the corporate structure right to prevent that. See my other comment about the Scott Trust - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35967694 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35967694
- tuukkah 3y agoI know this is HN but the first reaction to a broken system should be to fix it, not build a business on top of it.
- 3y ago
- vuln 3y agoThey have email, internet, social media and video chat in jail. It costs a lot of money but they have the ability to access the internet. The library has free or reduced cost internet but the tablet in the cell is the big bucks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_prisons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_prisons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPay
- gessha 3y agoHow about we stop monetizing people’s misery and start treating them like humans? People get drunk on money and start trying to monetize every single interaction in life. People make mistakes, go down the wrong path and go to jail if their wrongs are bad enough. That doesn’t mean they should have even more of a mine stripped road back to society.
- Gigachad 3y agoThis is already common for most business models. When you chuck your stuff in a storage locker and then vanish for 2 years without paying, you know what they do? They cut the lock off and sell your stuff to some stranger.
- gessha 3y agoYou choose to put your belongings in a storage locker. You don’t choose to go to jail.
- theRealMe 3y agoI could be wrong, but people in prison usually still have access to email. And even if they didn’t, they have 2 *years* to have a friend/family to log in for them. For a free service. This is fake concern created by people that just want to be mad at google.
- resolutebat 3y agoPrison email, if available at all, is usually through some super locked down per pay message custom site (www.corrlinks.com seems to be a big player). You're definitely not getting access to regular Gmail if you're doing hard time.
- johnny22 3y agothat assumes they have family and friends who are still alive.
- JohnFen 3y ago> It's a good reminder to not rely on Google for long term storage of anything you care about. Don't rely on any cloud/SaaS provider to do that. Seriously.