Didn't read Google's terms of service, and now I'm paying for it.

[Mystogan99]

I don't really know where to start this. I don't know if this is me asking for help or just wanting to get my story out there. It's always hard to figure out where to start with something like this. (Holy crap, I'm five paragraphs in, and I feel like I'm not even finished yet. I will put a too long didn't read at the end) Sorry for how long this is.

 

I guess I should start with who I am now. I work at the college that I attend for mechanical engineering. I work in one of the college's IT departments as a tier 2 tech. The only reason why I got this position is because of Linus and this community. Before I got this job at the college, I was selling bikes at a flea market, trying to make ends meet, and everyone at the flea market seemed to have an old broken computer. Watching almost every single one of Linus's videos, I was able to help most of the people at the flea market get their computers working to some extent. That's how my boss found me. So, in reality, I owe a lot to this community. Even though I never posted, I used the forum a lot.

 

I grew up and still live in a small college town in New Mexico. The internet was pretty terrible back then and still is kind of bad in places now. Even so, I had been exposed to computers at an early age. I am dyslexic. Luckily, I was diagnosed at an early age. The school gave me a laptop that was not allowed to access the internet but had software that allowed me to listen to the required reading books. I had this computer from elementary all the way through middle school. In high school, they made me get my own computer and find my own software to fulfill my IEP. That may not be relevant, but I feel it might be important for context later.

 

I attended my first gaming and programming summer camp in 2010. That is when I created my first Google account. I was a young, stupid kid on the internet who did not understand how it worked or that I needed to be careful. I lost that account the summer before I was supposed to start high school in 2012. I lost it to a fishing scam. I was a little bit too trusting on the internet back then. Luckily there wasn't too much tied to that account since I didn't have internet at home, and the only time I could use it was on my Nintendo 3DS. Think I also lost my Nintendo account for that DS and had to factory reset it. Then I created my Google account, which I have used up until now. That's about a decade I've been with this Google account. I had all my life tied to this account. In hindsight, this was very stupid. The only reason I had everything connected to it was because of ease of use. Google made it easy to get sucked in and use its services. I was a YouTube prime member, paid for expanded space on Google drive, and even had my Google pay setup so that it could manage all of my accounts that I had subscriptions for. That's not even talking about all the TV shows and movies I bought from Google. Funny enough, I was an early adopter of YouTube premium back when it was YouTube Red. I hopped onto that within the first month of them releasing it. But I digress; the reason why I had everything set up this way it's because of my dyslexia. They made it so easy. So, I bought into Google's ecosystem full-heartedly without even realizing it. The funny thing is I know better.

 

In my department, I am the Linux guy. Before, no one in my office used Linux besides someone in tier 3 who got hired a month before me. He's not that big into Linux, but Even so, I've been able to change the office's workflow. We use it for testing, and we even have a dedicated machine running Linux Mint so we can wipe and test drives as they come in. I know about the dangers of having everything in one place. But yet, I did it for the sake of convenience. For the most part, I didn't even realize it until it was too late. I would always talk about how I don't trust Microsoft, Facebook, and the other companies making questionable decisions. I didn't like some of the things that Google did either, but if I had to trust my data with a company, I might as well trust the company that already had my data whether I wanted them to have it or not. I guess it's like the old saying to go with the devil you know, then the devil you don't.

 

I'm sure many of you might be thinking now that I lost my account to another fishing attack or something stupid. Well, I can assure you it was nothing like that, but it's just as stupid. But I suppose this also needs context; back in high school, I met a friend who I hit it off with in a way. Both of us had iFunny, which was my only social media at the time. Mostly, I'm against social media, but I have a few exceptions, such as Discord and LinkedIn. I have my own problems with discord but that's neither here nor there. iFunny is no longer one of those exceptions and hasn't been for a long time, but that's where I started sending memes and the occasional lewd fan art I would find to my friend. We would go back and forth like that for years. This continued on through high school and even into college. Of course, some things were more risqué than others and were mutual. At some point, we moved to Google Hangouts. I'm not sure when we made the change, but we have been using Hangouts up until now, even with Google trying to get everyone on their new chat app. So about 3 weeks to a month ago, it was late, and I needed to go to bed because I had work in the morning. I had sent a few pictures that I had found on rule 34 as usual before I went to bed. Nothing too crazy in my mind. Just a few furries and one NSFW GIF of Tsuyu Asui from my hero academia. I got a "did not send" notification right after sending it. I tried telling them good night, but I got the same notification. So I'm wondering if I was having an internet issue. So I decide to log into my modem and restart it remotely. That didn't work. That's when I realized it wasn't an internet issue; I noticed there was a triangle notification with an exclamation mark in it. It was a Google account activation request. I thought that was weird and thought maybe someone was trying to get into my account. So I log in, and it wants me to two-step verify, but no email comes in. I couldn't figure out what was going on for a few seconds just because I was tired at this point. I just wanted to go to bed, but I wanted to make sure I didn't wake up with someone else using my account. So I went through the process of having them send me a verification code through text message. It lets me log in, which is weird because I've never had this many problems getting into my account before. That's when I saw the terms of service violation. I thought it was really weird because I hadn't done anything different than I usually do. So I sent a half-baked appeal because I assume it's some kind of mistake. I even asked what section of the terms of service I violated to see if we could get this cleared up. Though I might have been a little flippant because I was tired, I said something along the lines that I'm a Linux user and can find alternatives if need be and that Google services is an ease of use thing for me. That might have been a mistake, but I was just trying to get to bed. 

 

The next morning I woke up with an email on my work account saying that I violated the terms of service, and there was a link for the TOS where I what's supposed to read them to find out what I had done. I clicked the link, thinking it would take me to the exact section I violated, but that did not happen. That's when I realized I would need to read the whole terms of service to understand what might have happened. As a dyslexic, that kind of pissed me off. I know most people don't read the terms of service, and as a dyslexic, it's not a simple thing to do either. So I got to work early and read through their entire terms of service and dependencies. That was a major pain in my ass. That's where I found out two things. One, they don't permit nudity in their private messaging. Two, they don't distinguish between cartoons and real life. In my mind, this reminded me a lot of when a YouTuber gets their account deleted. I felt like I was in a similar place. So I think about what most YouTubers have said about trying to recover their account, where they would have to figure out the offense and try to correct it for the future. So I sent another very carefully worded request saying that I have read through your terms of service and I think I have found the area I violated. I also would not continue that behavior as my Google account is important to me and is the center of my life. It was kind of surreal trying to beg for my account; for something, I had been doing on the account for about 8 years at that point. I was being genuine; I was seriously thinking I would stop using Hangouts altogether because of it. All I got in response was that my account is under review as a response. I had a vacation coming up, and I was thinking, oh that's fine I'm not going to need my Google account while I'm gone. That's when I realized my home security system wasn't working as it had been set up through my Google account. There would be no way to monitor or check on the house later because I couldn't access any of the cameras. So I sent another carefully worded request to Google about my current situation. All I received back was that my account was under review. They say the review process should take a day or two, but that's not the case. But part of me also wonders if they're going back through the history of all the photos we sent back and forth to each other. I know it's a huge amount of files to go through since every now and again, I would go on to the Google archive and download all the archived photos. I think the last one I did was 13-14 GB zipped about 6 months ago. But at this point, I'm getting kind of anxious. They continue pulling money from my account for YouTube prime, and other Google-paid services that I have no access to. I don't want to have to go to my bank over this, but I will if I have to.

 

So I sent them another request, quite frustrated. I explained my situation and that if they are to continue to pull money out of my account, I expect my account to be back if not for them to stop removing money from my bank account. At that point, they blocked me from sending any more requests for 3 days. That really pissed me off, but there was nothing I could do. Now I'm just going through the tedious process of trying to recover all my old accounts and switch over emails if I can. Currently, I'm using an Outlook email as my primary account to put my subscriptions and other accounts I can recover on. I have also switched to a password manager called KeePassXC. I've even switched my browser from chrome to brave on all my devices. Has been a transition period for me. The worst part of this is that I haven't figured out anything for my phone yet. Part of me wants to move to a dumb phone, but I think that's just being spiteful. I really want a Linux phone, but I need to use too many Android only apps for work and school. I even made a second Google account to put it on my phone. That's when I realized I couldn't switch the account on my phone because I was locked out of the current account. It's really annoying because every time I open my phone, the Google Play service checking for Info page is always on top. It doesn't do anything; it just sits there and spins forever. I used to use the Google Translate floating icon thing to read me text from my phone. Now every time I open it wants me to log into my Google accountant has become quite useless to me I haven't found a good replacement for that yet. On Linux, I use Festival; on Windows, I use NaturalReader. But it's not like I could install it on my phone anyway unless I could find the APK. I am aware of alternative app stores. I even have APKpure installed. It's just not the same.

 

To be honest, I know it's my fault. I have no one to blame, but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck. This was hard for me to write. Not just because of my dyslexia but because of the emotions that boil up. It's just a mix of anger, disappointment, and despair. I'm not really sure what else to do at this point. Any suggestions would be nice. I also didn't realize how long it would take me to write this. You really don't know what you have until you lose it. But I'm also mad at myself for being so dependent on a company like Google.

 

TLDR-
I got sucked into the Google ecosystem even though I am an anti-big tech person who even uses Linux. Even so, ended up relying on Google without even realizing it. Got screwed over by not reading the TOS and most likely lost my Google account forever. I am still trying to figure out a replacement for everything, but I am mainly pretty upset that they are still pulling money out of my bank account even though I don't have access to their services.

[DigitalGoat]

33 minutes ago, Mystogan99 said:

I don't really know where to start this. I don't know if this is me asking for help or just wanting to get my story out there. It's always hard to figure out where to start with something like this. (Holy crap, I'm five paragraphs in, and I feel like I'm not even finished yet. I will put a too long didn't read at the end) Sorry for how long this is.

 

I guess I should start with who I am now. I work at the college that I attend for mechanical engineering. I work in one of the college's IT departments as a tier 2 tech. The only reason why I got this position is because of Linus and this community. Before I got this job at the college, I was selling bikes at a flea market, trying to make ends meet, and everyone at the flea market seemed to have an old broken computer. Watching almost every single one of Linus's videos, I was able to help most of the people at the flea market get their computers working to some extent. That's how my boss found me. So, in reality, I owe a lot to this community. Even though I never posted, I used the forum a lot.

 

I grew up and still live in a small college town in New Mexico. The internet was pretty terrible back then and still is kind of bad in places now. Even so, I had been exposed to computers at an early age. I am dyslexic. Luckily, I was diagnosed at an early age. The school gave me a laptop that was not allowed to access the internet but had software that allowed me to listen to the required reading books. I had this computer from elementary all the way through middle school. In high school, they made me get my own computer and find my own software to fulfill my IEP. That may not be relevant, but I feel it might be important for context later.

 

I attended my first gaming and programming summer camp in 2010. That is when I created my first Google account. I was a young, stupid kid on the internet who did not understand how it worked or that I needed to be careful. I lost that account the summer before I was supposed to start high school in 2012. I lost it to a fishing scam. I was a little bit too trusting on the internet back then. Luckily there wasn't too much tied to that account since I didn't have internet at home, and the only time I could use it was on my Nintendo 3DS. Think I also lost my Nintendo account for that DS and had to factory reset it. Then I created my Google account, which I have used up until now. That's about a decade I've been with this Google account. I had all my life tied to this account. In hindsight, this was very stupid. The only reason I had everything connected to it was because of ease of use. Google made it easy to get sucked in and use its services. I was a YouTube prime member, paid for expanded space on Google drive, and even had my Google pay setup so that it could manage all of my accounts that I had subscriptions for. That's not even talking about all the TV shows and movies I bought from Google. Funny enough, I was an early adopter of YouTube premium back when it was YouTube Red. I hopped onto that within the first month of them releasing it. But I digress; the reason why I had everything set up this way it's because of my dyslexia. They made it so easy. So, I bought into Google's ecosystem full-heartedly without even realizing it. The funny thing is I know better.

 

In my department, I am the Linux guy. Before, no one in my office used Linux besides someone in tier 3 who got hired a month before me. He's not that big into Linux, but Even so, I've been able to change the office's workflow. We use it for testing, and we even have a dedicated machine running Linux Mint so we can wipe and test drives as they come in. I know about the dangers of having everything in one place. But yet, I did it for the sake of convenience. For the most part, I didn't even realize it until it was too late. I would always talk about how I don't trust Microsoft, Facebook, and the other companies making questionable decisions. I didn't like some of the things that Google did either, but if I had to trust my data with a company, I might as well trust the company that already had my data whether I wanted them to have it or not. I guess it's like the old saying to go with the devil you know, then the devil you don't.

 

I'm sure many of you might be thinking now that I lost my account to another fishing attack or something stupid. Well, I can assure you it was nothing like that, but it's just as stupid. But I suppose this also needs context; back in high school, I met a friend who I hit it off with in a way. Both of us had iFunny, which was my only social media at the time. Mostly, I'm against social media, but I have a few exceptions, such as Discord and LinkedIn. I have my own problems with discord but that's neither here nor there. iFunny is no longer one of those exceptions and hasn't been for a long time, but that's where I started sending memes and the occasional lewd fan art I would find to my friend. We would go back and forth like that for years. This continued on through high school and even into college. Of course, some things were more risqué than others and were mutual. At some point, we moved to Google Hangouts. I'm not sure when we made the change, but we have been using Hangouts up until now, even with Google trying to get everyone on their new chat app. So about 3 weeks to a month ago, it was late, and I needed to go to bed because I had work in the morning. I had sent a few pictures that I had found on rule 34 as usual before I went to bed. Nothing too crazy in my mind. Just a few furries and one NSFW GIF of Tsuyu Asui from my hero academia. I got a "did not send" notification right after sending it. I tried telling them good night, but I got the same notification. So I'm wondering if I was having an internet issue. So I decide to log into my modem and restart it remotely. That didn't work. That's when I realized it wasn't an internet issue; I noticed there was a triangle notification with an exclamation mark in it. It was a Google account activation request. I thought that was weird and thought maybe someone was trying to get into my account. So I log in, and it wants me to two-step verify, but no email comes in. I couldn't figure out what was going on for a few seconds just because I was tired at this point. I just wanted to go to bed, but I wanted to make sure I didn't wake up with someone else using my account. So I went through the process of having them send me a verification code through text message. It lets me log in, which is weird because I've never had this many problems getting into my account before. That's when I saw the terms of service violation. I thought it was really weird because I hadn't done anything different than I usually do. So I sent a half-baked appeal because I assume it's some kind of mistake. I even asked what section of the terms of service I violated to see if we could get this cleared up. Though I might have been a little flippant because I was tired, I said something along the lines that I'm a Linux user and can find alternatives if need be and that Google services is an ease of use thing for me. That might have been a mistake, but I was just trying to get to bed. 

 

The next morning I woke up with an email on my work account saying that I violated the terms of service, and there was a link for the TOS where I what's supposed to read them to find out what I had done. I clicked the link, thinking it would take me to the exact section I violated, but that did not happen. That's when I realized I would need to read the whole terms of service to understand what might have happened. As a dyslexic, that kind of pissed me off. I know most people don't read the terms of service, and as a dyslexic, it's not a simple thing to do either. So I got to work early and read through their entire terms of service and dependencies. That was a major pain in my ass. That's where I found out two things. One, they don't permit nudity in their private messaging. Two, they don't distinguish between cartoons and real life. In my mind, this reminded me a lot of when a YouTuber gets their account deleted. I felt like I was in a similar place. So I think about what most YouTubers have said about trying to recover their account, where they would have to figure out the offense and try to correct it for the future. So I sent another very carefully worded request saying that I have read through your terms of service and I think I have found the area I violated. I also would not continue that behavior as my Google account is important to me and is the center of my life. It was kind of surreal trying to beg for my account; for something, I had been doing on the account for about 8 years at that point. I was being genuine; I was seriously thinking I would stop using Hangouts altogether because of it. All I got in response was that my account is under review as a response. I had a vacation coming up, and I was thinking, oh that's fine I'm not going to need my Google account while I'm gone. That's when I realized my home security system wasn't working as it had been set up through my Google account. There would be no way to monitor or check on the house later because I couldn't access any of the cameras. So I sent another carefully worded request to Google about my current situation. All I received back was that my account was under review. They say the review process should take a day or two, but that's not the case. But part of me also wonders if they're going back through the history of all the photos we sent back and forth to each other. I know it's a huge amount of files to go through since every now and again, I would go on to the Google archive and download all the archived photos. I think the last one I did was 13-14 GB zipped about 6 months ago. But at this point, I'm getting kind of anxious. They continue pulling money from my account for YouTube prime, and other Google-paid services that I have no access to. I don't want to have to go to my bank over this, but I will if I have to.

 

So I sent them another request, quite frustrated. I explained my situation and that if they are to continue to pull money out of my account, I expect my account to be back if not for them to stop removing money from my bank account. At that point, they blocked me from sending any more requests for 3 days. That really pissed me off, but there was nothing I could do. Now I'm just going through the tedious process of trying to recover all my old accounts and switch over emails if I can. Currently, I'm using an Outlook email as my primary account to put my subscriptions and other accounts I can recover on. I have also switched to a password manager called KeePassXC. I've even switched my browser from chrome to brave on all my devices. Has been a transition period for me. The worst part of this is that I haven't figured out anything for my phone yet. Part of me wants to move to a dumb phone, but I think that's just being spiteful. I really want a Linux phone, but I need to use too many Android only apps for work and school. I even made a second Google account to put it on my phone. That's when I realized I couldn't switch the account on my phone because I was locked out of the current account. It's really annoying because every time I open my phone, the Google Play service checking for Info page is always on top. It doesn't do anything; it just sits there and spins forever. I used to use the Google Translate floating icon thing to read me text from my phone. Now every time I open it wants me to log into my Google accountant has become quite useless to me I haven't found a good replacement for that yet. On Linux, I use Festival; on Windows, I use NaturalReader. But it's not like I could install it on my phone anyway unless I could find the APK. I am aware of alternative app stores. I even have APKpure installed. It's just not the same.

 

To be honest, I know it's my fault. I have no one to blame, but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck. This was hard for me to write. Not just because of my dyslexia but because of the emotions that boil up. It's just a mix of anger, disappointment, and despair. I'm not really sure what else to do at this point. Any suggestions would be nice. I also didn't realize how long it would take me to write this. You really don't know what you have until you lose it. But I'm also mad at myself for being so dependent on a company like Google.

 

TLDR-
I got sucked into the Google ecosystem even though I am an anti-big tech person who even uses Linux. Even so, ended up relying on Google without even realizing it. Got screwed over by not reading the TOS and most likely lost my Google account forever. I am still trying to figure out a replacement for everything, but I am mainly pretty upset that they are still pulling money out of my bank account even though I don't have access to their services.

Other than, yeah, read the TOS, lesson learned, I hope, as far as service payment and bank goes check the TOS again.

If there is nothing that explicitly says something like 'we will continue to charge you during a review process, yada yada yada' then make a note of the date of account suspension, if you get your account back, fair enough.

But if your account is permanently banned then you should submit a request for a refund of monies for the time charged without service access, a small claims court may be necessary and probably successful should Google refuse, most big companies fold here as it costs more to defend than to pay up.

Of course this all depends on your local laws concerning service providers, customer protections etc, and most importantly, what you actually agreed to when you started using Google's services.

You could still try a refund based on lost service charges regardless, you never know.

Good luck.

[LAwLz]

First of all, I just have to criticise your writing style a bit because this post was a chore to get through.

Holy crap OP you need to learn how to be brief. You don't have to go into such detail and explain everything. It's enough to say "I browsed iFunny", you don't have to explain why you browse it, when you did it, how often you did, what you looked at on the site, why you used that site and not a different one, how you feel about those other sites, etc. You also mention dyslexia 5 times and Linux 9 times. We get it. It becomes tedious to read when you mention it over and over. Honestly, I don't really see what neither dyslexia nor Linux has to do with this story at all, so it just feels like tangents. 

 

 

If I understand things correctly, you sent nude pictures of underage anime girls and then when Google started investigating your account you threated to stop using the service if they didn't give your account back? And then you realized that was a bad idea and kept sending poorly written appeals (in your words) until they blocked you?

 

 

My advice to you would be to calm down. I understand that it is a stressful situation, but your tone and way of writing tells me that you are not an easy customer to deal with, which if anything lessens your chance of getting your account back. You might already have burned this bridge but if you ever get into the same situation again here are some tips I think you should follow:

 

1) Keep yourself brief and to the point. Not just when retelling things on the forum but to the support staff as well. The fact that you got blocked from sending more appeals tells me that you sent multiple ones. That is bad. You want to send one appeal that contains all the important and relevant information, nothing more and nothing less. Plan what you are going to write, ask someone for feedback, think it through for a while, maybe even wait and hour or two before hitting "send", just in case you think of something else.

 

2) Don't respond with hostility. It is easy to get feelings of righteous indignation when something like this happens, but you have to remember that they have all the power and right to completely cut you off from your account if they want to. They are in charge and you are powerless. That's why you should be humble and ask for help. Customer support staff are usually more willing to help you if you are friendly than if you are rude.

 

3) You don't really have to read the entire TOS for services you use. Just be aware that there are some subjects that you should be careful with. Nudity is one of those subjects. Potentially copyright infringing material is another one. You should always be cautious when dealing with those things.

 

 

 

 

Also, a TL;DR is suppose to summarize the post. In this case you don't really summarize it. For example you don't include the reason why your account was shut down in the TL;DR, which I feel like is a pretty important detail.

 

 

Edit:

Forgot to add, I sincerely hope that you get your account back. I understand that it is a terrible situation to be in,.

[Just that Mario]

9 hours ago, LAwLz said:

First of all, I just have to criticise your writing style a bit because this post was a chore to get through.

Holy crap OP you need to learn how to be brief. You don't have to go into such detail and explain everything. It's enough to say "I browsed iFunny", you don't have to explain why you browse it, when you did it, how often you did, what you looked at on the site, why you used that site and not a different one, how you feel about those other sites, etc. You also mention dyslexia 5 times and Linux 9 times. We get it. It becomes tedious to read when you mention it over and over. Honestly, I don't really see what neither dyslexia nor Linux has to do with this story at all, so it just feels like tangents. 

 

 

If I understand things correctly, you sent nude pictures of underage anime girls and then when Google started investigating your account you threated to stop using the service if they didn't give your account back? And then you realized that was a bad idea and kept sending poorly written appeals (in your words) until they blocked you?

 

 

My advice to you would be to calm down. I understand that it is a stressful situation, but your tone and way of writing tells me that you are not an easy customer to deal with, which if anything lessens your chance of getting your account back. You might already have burned this bridge but if you ever get into the same situation again here are some tips I think you should follow:

 

1) Keep yourself brief and to the point. Not just when retelling things on the forum but to the support staff as well. The fact that you got blocked from sending more appeals tells me that you sent multiple ones. That is bad. You want to send one appeal that contains all the important and relevant information, nothing more and nothing less. Plan what you are going to write, ask someone for feedback, think it through for a while, maybe even wait and hour or two before hitting "send", just in case you think of something else.

 

2) Don't respond with hostility. It is easy to get feelings of righteous indignation when something like this happens, but you have to remember that they have all the power and right to completely cut you off from your account if they want to. They are in charge and you are powerless. That's why you should be humble and ask for help. Customer support staff are usually more willing to help you if you are friendly than if you are rude.

 

3) You don't really have to read the entire TOS for services you use. Just be aware that there are some subjects that you should be careful with. Nudity is one of those subjects. Potentially copyright infringing material is another one. You should always be cautious when dealing with those things.

 

 

 

 

Also, a TL;DR is suppose to summarize the post. In this case you don't really summarize it. For example you don't include the reason why your account was shut down in the TL;DR, which I feel like is a pretty important detail.

 

 

Edit:

Forgot to add, I sincerely hope that you get your account back. I understand that it is a terrible situation to be in,.

So what was the TLDR and what does the TOS have anything to do with this?

 

Nobody is ever going to casually read TOS of Google or any other big service/service provider. From your comment I guess OP is a weirdo getting it off from "underage anime girls" and sends the crap via Gmail or something? What does Google even charge him for?

[Roswell]

10 hours ago, Mystogan99 said:

But part of me also wonders if they're going back through the history of all the photos we sent back and forth to each other.

This sentence sticks out to me like a sore thumb and makes me think there’s stuff you’re leaving out of your story.

 

I’m not trying to freak you out or anything, but when Google does a complete lockdown of your account and refuses you any sort of access, there’s a strong possibility a report has been made to authorities or there’s an active investigation afoot. Usually when it’s just a simple TOS violation, you’ll get a warning or just that specific service disabled.

 

If there’s nothing illegal going on, please ignore my statement. But if there was, it’s probably best you don’t post about it publicly on the internet and seek legal advice.

[wanderingfool2]

10 hours ago, offweek said:

TLDR v 2.0: Sent nudes by private message, Google banned them.  Had single point of failure.

Well I would say, sent R34 of an anime character that is suppose to be 15.  Honestly that's a bit worse than just sending nudes.

 

1 hour ago, Roswell said:

If there’s nothing illegal going on, please ignore my statement. But if there was, it’s probably best you don’t post about it publicly on the internet and seek legal advice.

See above, I highly suspect that this is what triggered the ban...and understandably so.

[Mystogan99]

Yeah, I can pretty much guarantee you that there was nothing illegal and I'm not looking for legal advice. For the most part, it was just memes and fan art. I just commented about it because it felt like a lot of stuff to pick through. I also found it interesting because my friend didn't get flagged, but yet I think they've sent plenty of worse things. Either way, my main post was just as a cautionary tale. If anyone had suggestions for alternatives, I would gladly take that advice.

[Real_Smoky]

This is extremely scary. I have hundreds of accounts on different websites for different things and pretty much all of them use my GMail address. What happens if I am banned for something stupid? I will still be able to log in, sure, but what if I forget a password or they decide they want to force a password change due to a system change? I won't be able to log in, I will lose data, I will lose access to services. 

I hope websites find a better way to facilitate account creation, but I doubt they will bother.

As for Google taking your money without helping you - that is absolutely unforgiveable! Anyone who takes even a single cent out of your pocket should be obliged to listen to every single request you have during any time of the day. 

Fuck Google. 

[Real_Smoky]

9 hours ago, Caroline said:

Uhhh... ok, I guess.

Now, back into the topic.

 

I've read all of it, not just the TL;DR. I like walls of text and posts that aren't "pls help" a specs list and maybe two images.

 

Do it. I use a Sony Ericsson K790, has anyone ever seen me complain about it? No. It's not spiteful.

 

See, here's a perfect example that illustrates why I say GAFAM users are like substance addicts, over the years I've witnessed what Google *actually* is and how it traps those unaware into a thick web like a spider does, being outside the loop and a mere spectator has its advantages you see, Google users are addicts, they have developed a dependency to it and what it represents, hell normies use the word Google as a verb and say "google it" instead of "search it (on the internet)" or whatever, those who are so deep into it will use the search engine to look for the most trivial and insignificant things that are common sense or a simple thought for someone like me.

 

I can see this in you as well OP, you're a Google addict, I'm sorry though, the good news is that you CAN quit, but it'll be somewhat like quitting heroin I believe, hard. The first you have to change is your mindset, you definitely don't *NEED* to use "too many Android apps for work and school" you don't *NEED* to use a smartphone like it's vital support, you don't *NEED* Google, get it out of your head. I know it's hard and you're already showing the typical symptom of abstinence, making a second account, or a third, you're so hooked up to it you feel your life is coming apart the second you think about not using it and just like substance abusers you say you'll quit but keep virtually poking your arm by making new accounts. And that's a fact, I've seen the same happen to multiple people already both online and IRL.

 

That's the bait, exactly how their products work, and you can definitely realise it. Do you think their search engine is the most used because it's actually useful or the best? no, it's bullshit that spits out biased results and censors webpages at will (but they can do it because it's a private company I KNOW GUYS I'M NOT THAT DUMB) but it's easy to use, so easy even KIDS are using it, let that sink in for a second, our future generations are also becoming addicted to something and they don't even know, seen 3 yr olds with smartphones, babies using tablets, parents installing cameras and "smart" baby monitors, and Google is in all of those devices, and more, much more.

 

If you don't think manipulating children's minds to fit nefarious political ideologies is bad enough here's something way more creepy:

Imagine your home was made out of glass, everyone on the neighbourhood could see what you're doing right? well, if that sounds bad then why letting this company not only know where you live, when you're at home, who your family is and what y'all do isn't? Not even 1984 and F451 had that level of dystopia, and yes I've read the entire books.

And it goes far deeper, but I bet you already know, every picture you take with or send with your smartphone is seen by Google (isn't that why your account was banned??), every voice message gets analysed, or did you really most companies are offering voice messages because they want to make your life easier? Course not.

 

Take your time, think about it and start removing it from your life, every service, the search engine first, then the email, then youtube... until you get rid of your smartphone and any smart devices that are tied to Google in any way. You'll then realise you didn't need any of these things at all to live, have a job, go to college or whatever.

I have a brief story involving college and G but that's one for another day.

Oh, yeah, good luck explaining to your boss you can't be reached via any instant messaging service or video call.

While you're at it, you should also remove every single PC from your home. You don't need it for work! 

/facepalm

[IPD]

Holy Wall O Text, Batman!

[Lurking]

Looks like OP posted the entire TOS....

 

I don't need to read any TOS to know to not send nude pictures. I'm sure every TOS in 2022 wil have some language for that becasue some people did not have common sense.  Just keep in mind, even if you never send the picture and just keep on your phone, a skilled entity can access them. Once a nude picture exists, it could be everywhere in seconds. All your data (on your phone, or private desktop) can be accessed by NSA and many entities below NSA skill levels. So if you think about illegal or just forbidden stuff, just don't do it. 

 

I didn't read the entire OP, so I don't know the exact nature of the images. But Google don't want to be complicit with possibly illegal activity. I didn't think in 2022 this still has to be explained. They don't know was the person 18, or did they give consent? Agree or not, but certain things you better don't do and most should be common knowledge. 

[Origami Cactus]

3 hours ago, Real_Smoky said:

This is extremely scary. I have hundreds of accounts on different websites for different things and pretty much all of them use my GMail address. What happens if I am banned for something stupid? I will still be able to log in, sure, but what if I forget a password or they decide they want to force a password change due to a system change? I won't be able to log in, I will lose data, I will lose access to services. 

Just do everything opposite to what this guy did and everything will be fine, you can get your Google account back.

@LAwLz had a really well articulated reply on what to actually do when your account goes under review.

[Real_Smoky]

On 6/16/2022 at 5:26 PM, Lurking said:

Looks like OP posted the entire TOS....

 

I don't need to read any TOS to know to not send nude pictures. I'm sure every TOS in 2022 wil have some language for that becasue some people did not have common sense.  Just keep in mind, even if you never send the picture and just keep on your phone, a skilled entity can access them. Once a nude picture exists, it could be everywhere in seconds. All your data (on your phone, or private desktop) can be accessed by NSA and many entities below NSA skill levels. So if you think about illegal or just forbidden stuff, just don't do it. 

 

I didn't read the entire OP, so I don't know the exact nature of the images. But Google don't want to be complicit with possibly illegal activity. I didn't think in 2022 this still has to be explained. They don't know was the person 18, or did they give consent? Agree or not, but certain things you better don't do and most should be common knowledge. 

Unless you live in a shithole country, and unless we are talking about images taken without consent including images of minors, sending and storing nudes are not and should not be illegal. The fact that they "don't know" doesn't make their move any less dickish, it makes it even more so because they are punishing the innocent instead of pursuing the guilty ones. 

Imagine you were posing for a photo with a gun in your hands and you send the picture to someone and they ban you. They see a gun - they don't know if it was legally obtained, they don't know if you are a terrorist. See how stupid that sounds?
 

On 6/16/2022 at 7:42 PM, Origami Cactus said:

Just do everything opposite to what this guy did and everything will be fine, you can get your Google account back.

@LAwLz had a really well articulated reply on what to actually do when your account goes under review.

Uhm, my account didn't get banned, so there was nothing for me to do, so it is literally impossible for him to do the opposite of what I did.

And if your implication is to have a separate email address for every single account that you make on any website, well, that's just silly. 



______________________


@OP: this is not your fault. This is a problem with technocracy. Just because something is written in the TOS doesn't make it right. They could write that you will become their slave or that they can harvest your organs. But it's not right and not enforceable. 

You did nothing wrong and they are just bullying you for a stupid reason. They have a huge amount of workers who apparently don't have anything better to do than play the role of morality cops. I hope you can get your account back. Don't let bootlickers convince you that you did something dirty, perverted or illegal LMAO. Good luck! 

[Stahlmann]

On 6/16/2022 at 4:17 PM, Real_Smoky said:

Anyone who takes even a single cent out of your pocket should be obliged to listen to every single request you have during any time of the day. 

That is the single most unreasonable thing i've read in a very long time.

 

Even more unreasonable than expecting end-users to read TOS.

[SimplyChunk]

The thing that worries me about this is who was he sharing this pictures with?  Putting malice to one side at the moment, does OP really know the ages of all the people he was sharing these pictures with?  I know from my 15 year old nephew (and lets be honest half the user base on this forum) that 'hentai' and 'anime' are super hot topics at the minute.  It wouldn't take much for a kid to lie about their age.  FFS even my nephew has Derpixon's logo as his Discord banner

[Skyesgaming]

I doubt he would've been banned for TOS. I think that would've been more a slap on the wrist. 

[NF-F12]

On 6/15/2022 at 7:56 AM, LAwLz said:

If I understand things correctly, you sent nude pictures of underage anime girls

 

It is at least slightly amusing to me that the most heartfelt response to this dude comes from someone with a tiny anime girl as his avatar.

[Real_Smoky]

3 hours ago, SimplyChunk said:

The thing that worries me about this is who was he sharing this pictures with?  Putting malice to one side at the moment, does OP really know the ages of all the people he was sharing these pictures with?  I know from my 15 year old nephew (and lets be honest half the user base on this forum) that 'hentai' and 'anime' are super hot topics at the minute.  It wouldn't take much for a kid to lie about their age.  FFS even my nephew has Derpixon's logo as his Discord banner

That's like saying porn sites should be fined if a minor watches porn. They put a disclaimer up there for a reason. If the child lies, the responsible party is the parent of the child. There is only so much a person can do. 

[tkitch]

19 minutes ago, Real_Smoky said:

That's like saying porn sites should be fined if a minor watches porn. They put a disclaimer up there for a reason. If the child lies, the responsible party is the parent of the child. There is only so much a person can do. 

Don't pull any muscles with your reaching.

 

Nobody said anything of the sort.

 

Providers have a fair bit of legal shielding, because they literally can't age authenticate everyone who makes an account, so as long as they cover due-dilligence, they're mostly in the clear.

 

That being said?  Anything that crosses into Pedophilia is not cool, even if animated, and they *have* to act on it, otherwise they WILL Get into some serious shit.

[Real_Smoky]

4 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

That is the single most unreasonable thing i've read in a very long time.

 

Even more unreasonable than expecting end-users to read TOS.

Not unreasonable at all. We are the ones who pay the dinner that their families eat. It's not like OP was a KarenTM making a fuss about her double cream extra cinnamon late was 2 degrees colder than it should have been. The OP simply try to get an issue resolved and they ignored him. That is NOT how you treat a PAYING customer. Source: I worked in a hotel and I had to deal with reasonable and unreasonable requests and was able to do so politely in both cases so if a wagecuck like me was able to do it, Google can do it. 

[SimplyChunk]

31 minutes ago, Real_Smoky said:

That's like saying porn sites should be fined if a minor watches porn. They put a disclaimer up there for a reason. If the child lies, the responsible party is the parent of the child. There is only so much a person can do. 

Oh yeah.  I'm not defending the 'child' in any way shape or form. If they've lied then they're in the wrong.  It won't stop an investigation from being started though if a complaint has been put in by a parent.  That's the point of an investigation.  Not accusation but evidence gathering to find cause for accusation if it exsists

[Kisai]

On 6/16/2022 at 7:17 AM, Real_Smoky said:

This is extremely scary. I have hundreds of accounts on different websites for different things and pretty much all of them use my GMail address. What happens if I am banned for something stupid? I will still be able to log in, sure, but what if I forget a password or they decide they want to force a password change due to a system change? I won't be able to log in, I will lose data, I will lose access to services. 
 

I definitely had that happen when the 2FA app got out of sync with google.

 

Which apparently is possible. I had to drive 400km back to home to unlock it because it would only allow me to login from an IP I previously used. The mobile phone IP's of course, change every time it comes out of sleep.

 

Oh and Yahoo? They deleted all their country-code domains, so now if you signed up with an @yahoo.ca , it got renamed to yahoo.com and now that foreign site won't send you a password reset email you can receive.

 

Same with all the various renames from hotmail to outlook.com these sites just do not give a crap if they break things.

[Stahlmann]

1 hour ago, Real_Smoky said:

Not unreasonable at all. We are the ones who pay the dinner that their families eat. It's not like OP was a KarenTM making a fuss about her double cream extra cinnamon late was 2 degrees colder than it should have been. The OP simply try to get an issue resolved and they ignored him. That is NOT how you treat a PAYING customer. Source: I worked in a hotel and I had to deal with reasonable and unreasonable requests and was able to do so politely in both cases so if a wagecuck like me was able to do it, Google can do it. 

The post i quoted took it to unreasonable levels. And i'm all for letting customers know that they ask too much. I'm a contractor and i frequently let jobs go because of these extremely demanding attitudes on the customer side. You tend to lose more time and money with these customers than what it's worth.

[Mystogan99]

I want to point out that the person I was sending stuff to I know in real life. We went to high school together, and they are older than me. I would also like to point out that we are both adults.

[Heliian]

On 6/15/2022 at 11:08 PM, Mystogan99 said:

Yeah, I can pretty much guarantee you that there was nothing illegal and I'm not looking for legal advice.

Well, it depends which country you are in.  A lot of places classify that as child pornography.  

 

Good lesson to not rely on a sole source and always make your own physical backups.