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Tell HN: Google disabled my business-related account with no explanation

12 points by jmstfv ↗ HN
Google disabled my account, revoked our OAuth credentials, and brought my business to a halt.

For context, I run a backup company (notionbackups.com) that backs up Notion workspaces to various cloud storage providers, with Google Drive being the most popular integration.

Two weeks ago, I was on holiday and checked my Google account from a foreign country. When I came back home, I couldn't access my account anymore and was stuck in their signature verification loop with no way out.

Fast forward to today, I noticed that backup jobs are failing en masse. I log in to our Google account, and lo and behold, they greet me with a "Your account has been disabled" message. I never received any warnings or communications from them.

I was anticipating that one day they might block my account, since that's what they do, but this came out of the blue. I submitted an appeal, but I'm very skeptical it will go anywhere.

5 comments

[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 26.8 ms ] thread
jrhey
> I noticed that backup jobs are failing en masse

Have you checked if you brushed against their ToS somehow or exhausted their usage limits?

jmstfv
It definitely wasn't a usage limit since I have fewer than 200 customers. I have a verified app, which has been up and running for almost three years now.

I suspect it happened either due to accessing my account from an unknown IP or creating and editing a Profit and Loss statement in Google Sheets, which normally shouldn't trigger any alarms, but algorithms move in mysterious ways...

ipaddr
accessing your account from another part of the world can trigger the kill switch.
tomcam
wtf

Is this documented somewhere? Can one notify them ahead of time?

jmstfv
What's baffling is that I received no communication whatsoever, not even from Google Cloud.

I already had low expectations from Google, but this is unprecedented even for them.