Re:Ask HN: Why does validating a user require 14000 files?
by MawKKe on Friday September 03, 2021 @06:12AM
(#28402344)
I wanted to remove the profile picture on my account, but could not find such button anywhere in the account settings. So instead of removing, I replaced it with a blank white square. I thought I was clever.
Instead, I got a strike on my account.
IIRC it takes three strikes and you're out. But if a strike is handed out due to such a silly thing, I wonder what the next silly thing is going to be?
Clearly I cannot rely on such a platform, considering I would likely NEVER get my account back. From that point onwards, I've tried to reduce my dependency on Google accounts as much as possible.
> The day Google decides to lock your account (..) you are locked out from your digital life.
It takes getting banned because of mischief, perceived mischief, or algorithmic error on one of their services to instantly, and usually permanently, lose access to all of their services, and any other third party service you logged into with Google.
In other words: make a "wrong" comment on YouTube, and you lose decade(s) of your e-mails. If you were running your small business off Google's Office Suite on your personal account, well, you can kiss your business goodbye.
(In case anyone doubts that happens, I recommend checking out https://9to5google.com/2019/11/09/google-account-bans-youtub... for a recent example.)
And, of course, this pattern of behavior is not limited to Google. Big cloud services all have problematic or nonexistent customer support experience - a consequence of scaling up without paying the associated costs. It's thus more important than ever to diversify one's digital footprint and minimize dependencies.