[dendory]

The most interesting part was the reason he believes the account was suspended. He was working on a spreadsheet containing usernames and passwords. If that's really the case, it means some automated system scans not only your email, but documents you work on, for things like password lists, and right away assumes you're up to no good, killing your account. Scary.

[ceph_]

Sounds like a really wild accusation to me. Is their anything to back this up besides their speculation?

[tytso]

There's also the question of whether the original poster was telling the truth, or even told the whole story. If for example, the spreadsheet had a form for the entry of usernames and passwords, and someone came across it (maybe because it was e-mailed out to lots of people), and reported it as an attempted account phishing form, that would certainly explain an account getting suspended for an TOS violation --- and as far as I know, someone who is trying to use their Google account for phishing doesn't get escalating warnings... and I think most people would agree with this.

[prawn]

Should still get better recourse than tapping people you know and crossing your fingers for six days. Even if it's a paid expedited review, though that obviously is a flawed suggestion.

[taf2]

I know our consulting company for 2 years kept a sheet of logins as do most agencies so I find that hard to believe... However, I do recall getting my Adsense account banned for click fraud - which really sucked but it was true that I had my friends all click my ads and that my site was basically just ripping off pop culture content with naive hopes of getting rich quick - ah the 200's. so no suprise it got banned.

[karma_fountain]

That wasn't popjam was it?

[eloisant]

The thing is, if Google actually gave some kind of explanation, there would be no room for speculation. They're the one opening to the craziest speculations are rumors.

[Nitramp]

In many cases, companies cannot give explanations for such actions. Either because they'd be sharing private information, or because they'd be helping spammers/defrauders/... to figure out detection systems.

[OGinparadise]

That's a good point, but then there is the question of trust. 2 years ago, I would not have believed it. Now, I am not sure. Google has done many things I consider fishy and unethical so I am more likely to believe allegations against them.

But the reality is that people need to start diversifying or risk:

"A few minutes into my Google-less existence, I realized how dependent I had become. I couldn’t finish my work or my taxes, because my notes and expenses were stored in Google Drive, and I didn’t know what else I should work on because my Google calendar had disappeared. I couldn’t publicly gripe about what I was going through, because my Blogger no longer existed. My Picasa albums were gone. I’d lost my contacts and calling plan through Google Voice; otherwise I would have called friends to cry."

[pja]

Google wants people to trust the nuts of bolts of their lives to their servers, yet they cut off access to everything the moment they suspect that a user has transgressed. I can't be the only one that doesn't think this is reasonable.

At the very least, you should still have access to the Google data export for your account, even if the account has been cancelled for some reason.