I once had a functional bug where a MFA recovery email would receive the token, but the system would flag any further steps as ‘suspicious activity’. I also had an active gmail session via thunderbird, so I could easily have proven my claims legitimacy if required. Alas, there is no concept of support at google.
I lost access to a YouTube account, which had my gaming videos, when they went all in on Google Plus. Somehow they messed it up and I couldn't get through the recovery process. I remember I was forced to change my password and then I could no longer log in. After that I decided I would never make a new YouTube channel again.
I feel no reason short of a mandate from a judge is so good to allow Google (edit: or any other tech company, really) to completely lock someone out of their personal data. Give them a takeout link and send them on their way, at least.
>I feel no reason short of a mandate from a judge is so good to allow Google (edit: or any other tech company, really) to completely lock someone out of their personal data.
Yes. It's a travesty. And those who work at those tech companies should be ashamed to be associated with such behavior.
That said, if your data isn't hosted (even if just as a backup) on your hardware, it isn't your data.
If someone else is hosting your data then it doesn't belong to you, unless you have a strong copyright claim, and the money to pay lawyers to litigate such a claim.