What!? You\u2019re stilling using Google services? Haven\u2019t you been listening to anything I\u2019ve told you? I\u2019m sorry but I\u2019m over being polite. If you\u2019re still using Gmail, Google Docs, or Google Photos, then you\u2019re being naively foolish and deserve whatever bad thing happens to you as a result.<\/p>\n
Google, apparently not content with simply arbitrarily closing users\u2019 accounts and seizing their data when one of their automating scanning tools finds something they disapprove of, have started reporting them to the police. Read this post from Cory Doctorow<\/a> on how Google closed a user\u2019s account and reported him to the police for child abuse and even after he was cleared of wrong doing refused to restore his data.<\/p>\n The TL;DR is that the user\u2019s son had swollen genitals and when the parents consulted his doctor, the doctor asked them to take a picture of the boys genitals and send them to him because he wasn\u2019t seeing patients in person due to COVID. Since the photo was automatically synced to Google Photos, it was scanned and Google, clutching their pearls, was sure a crime had been committed and notified the police giving them access to all of the user\u2019s files.<\/p>\n The police soon realized that there was no crime or dubious behavior but Google is still refusing to admit they were wrong and won\u2019t restore the data. Other than the loss of data\u2014and other problems described in the post\u2014you could, I guess, say the story had a happy ending but it\u2019s not at all hard to imagine that it might not have.<\/p>\n If you deal with Google you\u2019re putting yourself at risk of not just losing your data but of serious legal difficulties. Stop being stupid. There are plenty of good alternatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What!? You\u2019re stilling using Google services? Haven\u2019t you been listening to anything I\u2019ve told you? I\u2019m sorry but I\u2019m over being polite. If you\u2019re still using Gmail, Google Docs, or Google Photos, then you\u2019re being naively foolish and deserve whatever … Continue reading