April 22, 2010 240 Comments

When Google Owns You – A New Chapter

Almost two years ago, I wrote When Google Owns You, about what happened with Nick Saber was cut off from all his Google applications. It’s worth taking a quick read now. Now, it’s my turn. I woke up this morning in Montreal to find that my access to my Google accounts has been temporarily disabled due to a “perceived violation of either the Google Terms of Service or product-specific Terms of Service.”

Don’t ask why. I haven’t found out yet. I can’t just yet. I’m in Canada.

So, here’s the list of things I can’t do without my Google Account:

  • Use my phone properly – it’s an Android phone.
  • Access my primary calendar.
  • Access my Google Wave (for collaboration projects).
  • Access all my RSS subscriptions (Google Reader).
  • Access my documents (Google Docs).

For anyone who wants to write in the comments “you should have a backup for everything, etc,” save the ink. We all know we should have more than one system, but, look again. That means carrying another phone, using a synced calendar platform, and then for the last three, a lot of document sync.

But my thing is this: my access to several core functions are downed in one shot.

The only upside: it *appears* that it’ll be easier to fix this once I’m back in the States. I simply have to give them my phone number to receive a text message. Note that I say “appears.” I use a Google Voice phone number. Will it even be able to receive my text message from Google helping me open my accounts?

Awesome. Thanks, Google.

**UPDATE: So, now that I’m back in the States (Philadelphia en route to home), I put in the “send me a text message” verification code option thingy. It sent my phone a text (not via Google Voice, obviously), and then just asked me to put in my new password. Technically, it wasn’t exactly hard to reset the account.

But what happened? No feedback. No idea. Just dead. That’s the part that gets me. The method? Whatever. But no information?

Not as helpful.

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  • ski309

    The 'putting your eggs in one basket' problem you get from putting all your stuff in the cloud is the same problem that occurs when someone puts all their stuff on their computer at home. IMO, it's safer to have your stuff on the net, that you can get to from any computer and may sometimes have problems accessing, than to have your stuff on your home computer and risk losing it all to a hard drive crash.

  • http://blog.SingularityDesign.com/ Jeff Greenhouse

    The debate seems to be between Google and Facebook as possible Skynets. Where does that leave Apple? Imagine the epic battles of the “Terminator” franchise with cute little white flying robots that look like EVA from Wall-E flitting about, easily blasting everyone else!

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  • http://dgiuri.com/ Dv0rsky

    gosh.
    have to rethink of the way i am using the web…

  • corey denis

    next up: facebook. i think it's time to choose a blue pill or red pill – turns out we are building the new matrix, not escaping it with subversion as perhaps we once believed (in 2005)

  • http://twitter.com/mayaREguru Maya P.

    Personally this just adds to my inherent distrust of a large corporation holding the keys to my data, and precisely why I dismissed using GoogleWave or Docs for a project I am undertaking, no thanks I will keep the lovely little documents in my own greedy little hands/usb drive. I admire your trust in this type of service, but I would go with the “eggs in one basket” analogy.
    I fear that Google will decide at some point that there are new rules and I might lose control of my information/data/materials.
    Google is starting to feel rather MaBell'ish to me of late, how big and how broad can they be?
    Impressed at your level of trust Chris. =) Glad it was resolved for you easily.

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    A social networking tool that allows Gmail users to share updates, photos, videos, links and more instantaneously online and on Android phones and the iPhone–made its debut today. By the end of the weekend, Google says all 175 million or so of its Gmail account holders will have access to the new service.

  • WaywardPondering

    I love you Google. Please don't ever dump me, less you leave me an empty shell of a human being, huddled in a corner silently weeping to myself. I see now that the veil of control over my Google services is thin at best.

  • http://twitter.com/wickenden Don LaVange

    My dad called me panicked the other day because Google had disabled his account. We got him back fairly quickly, but the thought of the loss of all those messages really had him and I freaked out. For me it's calenders, multiple accounts, and my phone. It is a concern.

  • http://www.yourentwesplit.com Mike

    Are you using Google Voice as well? I wonder if that would've been disrupted by this issue as well.

  • http://www.popupbooster.com Andrew Wyatt

    Google hasn't got your bank account – or your credit card number.
    You trust your bank and your credit card company. They know what you have been buying since your youth.

  • http://www.dogwalkblog.com/ Rufus Dogg

    Every time I think maybe I should cut my costs to near zero and move to the free cloud, I read something like this and am reminded that the only way to be in business is to really be in business. That means paying for dedicated servers, owning all my domain locations and the hardware that runs the apps as well as the redundant hardware that runs the backups and co-locate in case the primary and backups fail. Overkill? Probably most days, but real business uses real tools, not goofy free Google stuff. Gmail and Google Apps will probably always be toys and throw-away accounts.

  • http://konoponopdesign.blogspot.com/ deborah

    Just goes to show you, even when you think you evaded the shackles of the cubicle of corporate america, the cubicle will find you!!! perhaps google's new corporate theme song should be ” I've got you under my thumb”.

  • scottpenton

    yea, I use google a lot too, except the phone part, iphone, but still even there, you can't put everything in one basket, I need to back up as well, so I'm not as dependent on google, just in case, you never know.

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  • http://omcsocial.com leedman

    We had the same thing happen with a brand new client, without any indications as to why. Within 12 hours though, as you did as well, we had it restored and had the alternative option of the voice (automated) call to her land-line, as opposed to a text message to a cell phone.

  • Batman

    I have to ask, if it's possible for this to happen, why take the risk and throw all your chips in with Google? Not a rhetorical question, and also, one I don't have the answer to….

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  • KevinNeoh

    dont use their android phone already then!

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/Strodtbeck.C Charles

    being locked out of any account is a necessary evil when that account is compromised. Our only hope is that the company we have said account with has reasonable and easy methods to restore the account.

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  • http://graphopho.be RobbieCrash

    True, no such problem with your iPhone, yet. Apple can close your account accidentally just like Google, and then anything that you have stored with MobileMe, or in your iTunes account is lost as well.

    Any account that you have online can be closed, and your access to it lost. Your little iToy is in just as precarious a spot as his Android phone, her BlackBerry, that guys Live account, my banking info.

  • http://www.dogspelledforward.com egoebelbecker

    I was not able to log into the site, but it was still taking and forwarding calls when I was locked out.

  • http://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Don-Crowley/624521197 Don Crowley

    Come on Chris! It's 4 days later! Are you still cut off?

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  • Gonzo

    Any suggestions for someone in Mexico? 5 days already with no response or SMS =S

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    Is not the use of all cloud-based services, dangerous? As bundled Internet / phone / TV package, if something happens, you're screwed at three places. Or, that it is like a stock portfolio … you will not buy all in technology stocks, you need a different combination, to prevent the risk. The bottom line is …. this is the place you put all eggs in one basket.

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    Just goes to show you, even when you think you evaded the shackles of the cubicle of corporate america, the cubicle will find you!!! perhaps google's new corporate theme song should be ” I've got you under my thumb

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  • guest

    My google sites web site has been disabled for unspecified “policy violations”.
    If I EVER find out what the problem is, I’ll post it here.
    Until then I have sent 3 messages, one per day, to inquire the reason and the fix, and heve gotten ZIP, not one response at all.
    I love the range of google apps, and use several of them.
    In the long haul, the frustration of dealing with a monlithic organizaation that has no regard for the ONE MOST VALUABLE COMMODITY: MY TIME, is very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very
    FRUSTRATING.
    Like Chris, I am over a barrel, and it makes me feel small, unempowered, and beaten by a system that that does not care about humans.
    …just like the rest of the world!

    ixboat

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