Google Accounts Can Dump You At Any Time, For Any Reason, Without Any Notice

[Jingthing]

This is a little shocking.

I would NOT be prepared for this.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/04/life_without_google_when_my_account_was_suspended_i_felt_like_i_d_been_dumped.html

In reality, I discovered, Google assumes no responsibility over user
data nor is it required by law to do so. In the same notice informing me
that it had disabled my account, Google told me for the first time that
it reserves the right to “terminate your account at any time, for any
reason, with or without notice.” In its Terms of Service,
Google limits its total liability for stolen data, lost data, anything,
“TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US TO USE THE SERVICES” (yes, in all caps),
which could mean as much as the $2.49 per month you shelled out for 25GB more storage or in my case, nothing.

[NeverSure]

The writer starts with "Can You Live Without Google?"

Well, I've never lived with it, so yes. Google has a terrible record on customer privacy for one thing. It owns a couple of the most obnoxious ad tracking and placing outfits for one thing, and uses information it gets to target ads at web surfers. (Adsense, Adword, DoubleClick, Invite Media, Link)

Geez, it's only 25GB of storage, and this writer used it to store his only copies of his work records, tax receipt records... ??? He didn't have local copies? ??

Just give him the idiot of the month award, and tell him to point the finger where it belongs.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

I think you will find that most if not all providers of cloud storage and other online services will have similar T&Cs, and will dump you just as abruptly if they decide that they dont like what you are doing. They usually dont have to give a reason either, and they generally wont accept any liability for loss.

[Pib]

Heck, I think the T&C's of "most anything you signup for" in this world have clauses in that allow them to dump a person/close your account in a heartbeat.

[SunSeek01]

You must have really made them mad! I say that because, last year, I bought a Google Nexus 7 tablet. Within a month after somehow through synching with my Google calendar, all my calendar data disappeared. I went on the Google Calendar group, they tried to help me, they have something called Span Undelete, and a few other tricks. Nothing. So I mail back this nice agent who tried to help me, I email back over 10 times begging them to restore my data. Nothing

So I'm subscribed to this group and get multiple messages every week by people whom the same has happened. So a couple of them, I reply back (to the group mind you), tell my sad story in a polite way. I stopped after I started thinking, what if G kicks me off !

[draftvader]

I have to say that this is a fair warning to all users. If you keep your life COMPLETELY online they you need to be VERY sure of your position. I would guess that the number of people that actually read the Ts&Cs involved in anything they agree to is probably something in the region of 1 in 100,000. That understand them completely? Nearly zero.

This article has reminded me to check what it is I completely depend on google for. The answer, luckily, is just my calendar.

Data backup - Google Drive and local drive synching out of the google drive folder along with a continuous data backup onto a network drive

e-mail - IMAP with "store offline" option on (though having read this I will include my e-mail in my continuous data backup set again)

Contacts - In Thunderbird and synced to google

I have learnt long ago that a single copy of important data is suicidal, 2 copies of important data is prudent. This article, however, has reminded me to make another back-up of important data. Time to tune my Genie Timeline again!