9 ms·

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you should never store important things like your email/passwords/passkeys on google

CharlesW 3y ago
Also, do not use your main Google account to violate Google's Terms of Service.
- ocdtrekkie 3y ago
  You are assuming a lot if you think Google won't action "related" or "nearby" Google accounts.
  - suddenclarity 3y ago
    Not that I would be surprised but are there any real examples of this? I've considered setting up separate accounts for things such as email to reduce the risk of losing it in a random ban.
    - EscapeFromNY 3y ago
      Google "google bans entire company". Plenty of examples.
      - emodendroket 3y ago
        Isn’t a Google Apps organization a different scenario?
    - dingledork69 3y ago
      There's been many stories of entire companies being banned from Google services due to their affiliation with a freelancer who broke Google's rules years ago for a different client.
      - derefr 3y ago
        Those are accounts that are explicitly linked, though. We're talking about burner accounts, i.e. accounts where you try as hard as possible to create no link between them and your "regular" account.
      - rstat1 3y ago
        There's been many stories of entire companies being banned from Google services due to their affiliation with a freelancer who used the company account to brake Google's rules years ago for a different client. FTFY
labster 3y ago
This is why I will never pay for YouTube Premium. Imagine having a recurring charge that you can’t terminate because your account was deleted for some unrelated service, and you have no phone number or office to contact. Limit your interactions with Google to only the services you most need, and you will probably be safe. It’s too dangerous to go all-in on Google, because you could lose your entire digital footprint from an AI bot with no recourse other than HN and Twitter.
- CydeWeys 3y ago
  I don't think your hypothetical scenario is possible.
  - capableweb 3y ago
    It very much is. I haven't personally been affected by Google charging any account after being suspended, but I have been affected by Facebook suspending my account while not pausing running ads on Instagram and Facebook, leading to charges still being made after I had no way of turning them off. We're at least two people this has happened to :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35836221 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35836221
    - CydeWeys 3y ago
      All of those anecdotes are about Facebook though. Does Google have this bug? The two software stacks are completely different.
- madeofpalk 3y ago
  > Imagine having a recurring charge that you can’t terminate because your account was deleted for some unrelated service Has this actually happened - does Youtube Premium still charge for accounts that have been terminated? Or is this just FUD?
  - Tao3300 3y ago
    If it was happening, what would be your recourse? Call customer service?
crazygringo 3y ago
No, ladies and gentlement, that has nothing to do with that. The post is about a "disposable" Google account created two hours prior and all it did was break Google TOS. This is totally predictable protection from account abuse. Pretty much any major consumer company will ban brand-new accounts that immediately proceed to break TOS. I don't know what Google does with a longstanding account that breaks TOS in this way, but this is not that. Also you should be using Google Takeout to backup your account data regularly anyways -- that's what it's there for.
- esperent 3y ago
  Let's not make excuses for Google here. A few months ago I created a Gmail account for a new business - since I hadn't registered the domain yet, I planned on using the Gmail account for a while then switching over to the real email. Over the next few days I signed up for a bunch of other stuff with the account: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. I also registered the real, verifiable business address on Google Maps and requested a postcard verification to that address (which never arrived). That's literally all I did with the account over a span of two or three days. Then I took a long weekend hiking trip. Came back, the account is permanently locked. No way to contact support. Just a tiny comment box where I could plead my case, which I never got a response to. I was able to get back control of the FB, IG, Twitter accounts quite easily. It took me weeks of wrangling with Google support to get back control of the Google Maps location, and I was never able to unlock the original account. I had to do this whole messy process (as directed by them) of registering the business on Maps a second time then declaring the old one as a duplicate, then waiting two weeks for Google to process (ignore) that so I could escalate it to real human, then they fixed it but mangled the name which took another week or two to fix. So yeah, don't use Gmail for anything you care about is my advice. I can see why my actions on that account could falsely trigger the account to lock, that's not the issue. The issue is that there was literally no way to ever unlock the account once the false trigger happened. All they had to do was require a phone call with a real human in this case. But no, it's Google.
  - yial 3y ago
    I will say from experience with google maps, that if you say the right combination of lawyer, legal, etc etc…not directed at them, but about another entity accidentally in control of your maps location. They will call you from an overseas number between 8-11pm your local time, or 4am. If you answer, they can magically fix it in moments. If you don’t — you may get a call another time… or never… in which case, good luck. (In short, it’s insanely hard to get anything going wrong with Google fixed. And I am so sorry you had to go through that. I’m terrified of having something like my drive deleted(shared files). But I do pay for space… so perhaps paying makes it less likely?)

CharlesW 3y ago

Also, do not use your main Google account to violate Google's Terms of Service.

ocdtrekkie 3y ago
You are assuming a lot if you think Google won't action "related" or "nearby" Google accounts.
- suddenclarity 3y ago
  Not that I would be surprised but are there any real examples of this? I've considered setting up separate accounts for things such as email to reduce the risk of losing it in a random ban.
  - EscapeFromNY 3y ago
    Google "google bans entire company". Plenty of examples.
    - emodendroket 3y ago
      Isn’t a Google Apps organization a different scenario?
  - dingledork69 3y ago
    There's been many stories of entire companies being banned from Google services due to their affiliation with a freelancer who broke Google's rules years ago for a different client.
    - derefr 3y ago
      Those are accounts that are explicitly linked, though. We're talking about burner accounts, i.e. accounts where you try as hard as possible to create no link between them and your "regular" account.
    - rstat1 3y ago
      There's been many stories of entire companies being banned from Google services due to their affiliation with a freelancer who used the company account to brake Google's rules years ago for a different client. FTFY

labster 3y ago

This is why I will never pay for YouTube Premium. Imagine having a recurring charge that you can’t terminate because your account was deleted for some unrelated service, and you have no phone number or office to contact. Limit your interactions with Google to only the services you most need, and you will probably be safe. It’s too dangerous to go all-in on Google, because you could lose your entire digital footprint from an AI bot with no recourse other than HN and Twitter.

CydeWeys 3y ago
I don't think your hypothetical scenario is possible.
- capableweb 3y ago
  It very much is. I haven't personally been affected by Google charging any account after being suspended, but I have been affected by Facebook suspending my account while not pausing running ads on Instagram and Facebook, leading to charges still being made after I had no way of turning them off. We're at least two people this has happened to :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35836221 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35836221
  - CydeWeys 3y ago
    All of those anecdotes are about Facebook though. Does Google have this bug? The two software stacks are completely different.
madeofpalk 3y ago
> Imagine having a recurring charge that you can’t terminate because your account was deleted for some unrelated service Has this actually happened - does Youtube Premium still charge for accounts that have been terminated? Or is this just FUD?
- Tao3300 3y ago
  If it was happening, what would be your recourse? Call customer service?

crazygringo 3y ago

No, ladies and gentlement, that has nothing to do with that. The post is about a "disposable" Google account created two hours prior and all it did was break Google TOS. This is totally predictable protection from account abuse. Pretty much any major consumer company will ban brand-new accounts that immediately proceed to break TOS. I don't know what Google does with a longstanding account that breaks TOS in this way, but this is not that. Also you should be using Google Takeout to backup your account data regularly anyways -- that's what it's there for.

esperent 3y ago
Let's not make excuses for Google here. A few months ago I created a Gmail account for a new business - since I hadn't registered the domain yet, I planned on using the Gmail account for a while then switching over to the real email. Over the next few days I signed up for a bunch of other stuff with the account: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. I also registered the real, verifiable business address on Google Maps and requested a postcard verification to that address (which never arrived). That's literally all I did with the account over a span of two or three days. Then I took a long weekend hiking trip. Came back, the account is permanently locked. No way to contact support. Just a tiny comment box where I could plead my case, which I never got a response to. I was able to get back control of the FB, IG, Twitter accounts quite easily. It took me weeks of wrangling with Google support to get back control of the Google Maps location, and I was never able to unlock the original account. I had to do this whole messy process (as directed by them) of registering the business on Maps a second time then declaring the old one as a duplicate, then waiting two weeks for Google to process (ignore) that so I could escalate it to real human, then they fixed it but mangled the name which took another week or two to fix. So yeah, don't use Gmail for anything you care about is my advice. I can see why my actions on that account could falsely trigger the account to lock, that's not the issue. The issue is that there was literally no way to ever unlock the account once the false trigger happened. All they had to do was require a phone call with a real human in this case. But no, it's Google.
- yial 3y ago
  I will say from experience with google maps, that if you say the right combination of lawyer, legal, etc etc…not directed at them, but about another entity accidentally in control of your maps location. They will call you from an overseas number between 8-11pm your local time, or 4am. If you answer, they can magically fix it in moments. If you don’t — you may get a call another time… or never… in which case, good luck. (In short, it’s insanely hard to get anything going wrong with Google fixed. And I am so sorry you had to go through that. I’m terrified of having something like my drive deleted(shared files). But I do pay for space… so perhaps paying makes it less likely?)