One Dataset. No Warning. Google Took Everything. You're Not Safe Either

Google suspended my payments account a few months ago without even notifying me. I never received a reason for the suspension, but I suspect it's related to a failed game refund from Stadia, as I see a refund error in my payment notifications. Dealing with Google Support has been a Kafkaesque loop where I have to explain the same thing over and over, only to get the same scripted instructions that take me nowhere. After this dance, they finally say they will "escalate" the issue and then close the case. At this point, I've given up and am in the process of de-googling my life.

I got into a situation a couple of years ago with Google over a few dollars when I terminated my paid GSuite account. It was impossible to contact them to settle the balance. They kept sending emails from a Google-branded department that was clearly outsourced. The process was literally Kafka-esque.

Didn’t manage it in the end. Ended up going to collections who happily listened and cancelled the debt.

I was a happy paying email customer of many years.

I now am sworn never to enter any kind of relationship with Google, and encourage to do the same.

I encrypt so much of the stuff I upload to google drive or email. In my case, more because my filetypes and contents tend to trigger malware detection (even though literally none of it is malware or even security research).

Stories like this are why I do it. I don’t know when something is going to get flagged - NSFW or otherwise. I really should de-google and I mean to. Buts its a daunting project for the email address I’ve had since 2004 (my email is now old enough to drink in USA).

Currently going through this with Reddit. Their appeal process is to submit a form which may or may not be processed, and there is zero feedback for the user. Common advice is to submit the form daily.

I have submitted it 200 times over the past year. I know that it probably just goes into a black void, but it is apparently the official review process, and I am 100% sure there were no rule violations (I was flagged for responding to new threads too quickly and reposting the same educational link a few times because I was answering the same sort of question). It's cruel really. Somehow they made something even worse than the Google approach. Presumably tens of thousands of users are wasting time every single day doing this.

Like others have said, most tech companies are like this and it's unacceptable, even if users are the product.

Good public warning.

But still, "unzip random NSFW content onto Google Drive" doesn't sound risk free does it

Not surprised.

Google clearly states CSAM is forbidden on their platform.

The user stored CSAM on Google Drive. Regardless whether it is for academic research or not - which in this case, it wasn't. It was for training a model.

Do you really think Google wants to be on the front page of the newspaper saying it allows users to store CSAM?

The user has been caught off guard and that's on them.

And yes, you're not safe either if you store CSAM on Google. Who in their right mind thinks they are?

Edit: Grammar

I know. They've been doing this for ages. It's very hard to convince people something like this can happen to them until it does.

Have you considered creating a PWA?