***** When Google Doesn't Care *****

Why am I pushing a "Users' Bill of Account Rights" now? While this does not apply only to #Google, I frankly am deeply tired of people coming to me desperate, pleading, for help trying to restore access to locked out Google accounts. Google won't respond to them. They ask who they can talk to? Who can they PAY? Personal and business emails, precious photos, files. They trusted Google. They followed the rules. They did nothing illegal. And they've lost access to everything. To Google, they're just in the noise at Google scale.

It's been this way at Google since the firm's start, but over the years Google has encouraged ordinary, nontechnical people to trust them more and more. And that usually works great, until something goes wrong.

Up to now, I've sometimes been able to informally help in these situations, via contacts at Google. But even that has become much more difficult. This is getting worse, not better.

Google has the resources -- money and smart minds -- to solve these problems. This is not rocket science, or even computer science. There are straightforward ways to make this far better for Google users otherwise locked out and left to swing in the wind. The sad fact is that Google simply doesn't consider them to rise to the level worth helping.

This must change now. -L