Since I again started discussing how to protect Google Accounts — e.g. very recently in “Protecting Your Google Account from Personal Catastrophes” — https://lauren.vortex.com/2017/09/07/protecting-your-google-account-from-personal-catastrophes — I’ve been flooded with queries by Google users with confusion over Google Account issues of all sorts.
Most of them have indeed never heard of Takeout or Inactive Account Manager and many are confused about account recovery numbers and addresses, 2-factor setups, usage, and much more.
I even got a note from a Googler thanking me for that article, noting that he had never even heard of Inactive Account Manager himself!
At last count, I have over 140 specific queries (and rapidly rising) on these topics from just the last few days that I’m trying to triage. I can handle most of these through explanations myself — I always try to help where I can — but frankly it’s extremely time consuming — and doesn’t help to keep the lights on around here.
And it’s just so very wrong that I’m doing this, rather than Google having a staffer filling this kind of role to take care of these Google users — these people in desperate need of such assistance.
I know the excuses and I know the scaling concerns but it’s shameful nonetheless. If I can do this much myself from the outside, surely Google has the resources to get somebody to do as much from the inside, who is actually getting paid for their efforts at public outreach and assisting these dedicated Google users?
I’m sure it’s not a matter of money for Google. They just need to truly care about their users who depend on Google just like the rest of us, but who are being rapidly left behind under the status quo.
C’mon Google! You can do this!
–Lauren–