免费 Google Workspace 帐户被错误指控为商业用途
1 分•作者: Apreche•4 个月前
众所周知，谷歌一直在试图取消其免费的旧版 Google Workspace 帐户。 之前他们几乎完全做到了，但在最后一刻撤回了决定。
我拥有其中一个帐户，自从它被称为 Google Apps For Your Domain 以来就一直使用。 它是我和几个朋友的主要 Google 帐户。 我们当时没有用它来做生意，现在也没有。 我只想拥有一个普通的消费者免费 Google 帐户，但我也希望我和我的朋友们能够在我们的电子邮件地址上使用我们的域名，而不是 gmail.com。 因此，我们被困在 Google Workspaces 中长达二十年。 真是个大错误。 要是能有时光机回去阻止自己就好了。
就在上周，我收到一封电子邮件，说我们仍然免费的 Google Workspaces 帐户因违反个人非商业使用政策而被标记。 我们要么升级到付费帐户，要么删除我们的帐户，要么申诉。
当然，我申诉了，但没有抱任何成功的希望。 无法在申诉中添加任何信息。 只有一个按钮。 是的，我申诉了。
不出所料，申诉被拒绝了。 没有解释。 没有证据。 只是一个断然的拒绝，没有提供任何进一步的选项或信息。
你想阅读该政策吗？ 他们提供的链接在这里：
https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/billing/transition-from-a-free-edition
我在该页面上找到的唯一政策是“个人非商业使用”。 如果有人有更详细的政策解释的链接，以便我找到我们可能违反该政策的任何线索，请告诉我。
现在，对于我和几个朋友来说，我们唯一的选择似乎是为相同的服务支付荒谬的价格，即每月 7 美元/席位，而我们从消费者 Gmail 帐户中获得的服务除了我们电子邮件地址上的自定义域名之外，其他都一样。 至少在经历了一系列 Google Takeout 并重新导入到其他地方的巨大努力之前是这样。 是的，我设置了自动备份，因为我早就为这种情况做好了准备。 但这仍然是一次痛苦的迁移，我本来就不想做。
我知道人们有时会在 HN 上发布这样的故事，希望大型科技公司中的一位有影响力的人会注意到并介入解决这个问题。 我不能否认，如果发生这种情况，我不会抱怨。 但我对此没有期望。 我也不喜欢得到特殊待遇。 我真正希望的是所有用户都得到公平的对待。
与其乞求帮助，我更希望倡导法律补救措施。 我确实同意私营公司应该能够为其服务制定几乎任何他们想要的的使用政策，并随时以几乎任何理由禁止任何人。 但是，我相信他们应该有法律要求，即完整地发布这些政策。 如果发现用户违反了这些政策，公司应被要求明确指出违反了政策的哪一部分。 此外，他们还应被要求提供导致其决定的证据。
我还认为，如果他们被要求提供一个真正的人工申诉程序，那将是理想的。 但至少如果他们引用了政策并提供了他们的证据，这将使用户更容易通过法律系统或仲裁（如果存在具有约束力的仲裁条款）寻求补救措施。
最后，我想建议并提醒大家。 任何时候你注册任何你无法控制的平台时，都要随时准备好这些帐户随时被删除，而不会有任何警告。 这就是我很久以前就设置了备份流程的原因。 这也是我停止注册新的专有平台的原因。 我仍然使用的那些是我将永远使用的最后一个。 无论自托管设置有多麻烦，我向你保证，它比被迫逃离一个专有平台要轻松得多，因为该平台不可避免地会把你踢出去或关闭。
查看原文
We all know Google has been trying to get rid of their free legacy Google Workspace accounts. They almost did it entirely awhile back, and recanted at the last second.<p>I have had one of these accounts since it was known as Google Apps For Your Domain. It’s the primary Google account for me and several of my friends. We weren’t using it for business then, and we are not using it for business now. I only ever wanted to have a normal consumer free Google account, but I also wanted for me and my friends to be able to use our domain on our email addresses instead of gmail.com. Because of that, we have been trapped in Google Workspaces for twenty years. Such a big mistake. If only I had a time machine to go back and stop myself.<p>Just last week I got an e-mail that said our still-free Google Workspaces account has been flagged for violating the personal non-commercial use policy. We either have to upgrade to a paid account, have our accounts deleted, or appeal.<p>Of course I appealed with no expectation of success. There was no way to add any information to the appeal. It was just a button. Yes, I appeal.<p>The appeal was, unsurprisingly, denied. No explanation. No evidence. Just a flat denial with no further options or information provided.<p>Do you want to read the policy? The link they give is here:<p>https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/billing/transition-from-a-free-edition<p>The only policy I can find on that page is the phrase "personal non-commercial use." If anyone has a link to a more detailed explanation of the policy, so that I might find any hints as to how we may have violated it, please let me know.<p>Now for me and a handful of friends it seems our only option is to pay the absurd price of $7/month per seat for the same exact service we would get from consumer GMail accounts other than the custom domain on our e-mail addresses. At least that’s until we go through the huge effort of doing a bunch of Google takeout and re-imports to somewhere else. Yes, I have automated backups because I have been prepared for this sort of situation. But it’s still going to be a painful migration that I would rather not have to do in the first place.<p>I know people sometimes post stories like this on HN hoping that a powerful person at the big tech company will notice and come in to fix the situation. I can’t deny, I wouldn’t complain if that happened. But I have no expectations of that. I also don’t like getting special treatment. What I really want is for all users to be treated just as fairly.<p>Instead of begging for help, what I want is to advocate for a legal remedy. I actually agree that private companies should be able to set almost any usage policy they want for their services and ban anyone at any time for nearly any reason. However, I believe they should have the legal requirement to publish those policies in full. If a user is found in violation of those policies the company should be required to cite exactly which part of the policy was violated. Furthermore, they should be required to produce the evidence that led to their decision.<p>I also think it would be ideal if they were required to supply a real-human appeals process. But at least if they cite the policy and provide their evidence it would make it easier for users to seek a remedy via the legal system, or by arbitration (if there is a binding arbitration clause).<p>Lastly, I want to advise and remind everyone. Any time you sign up for any platform you do not control, always be prepared for those accounts to be deleted at any time without warning. That’s why I put the backup process in place a very long time ago. And that is why I stopped signing up for new proprietary platforms. The ones I still use are the last ones I will ever use. However much the hassle is to setup self-hosting, I promise you, it is a lot less painful than being forced to escape a proprietary platform when it inevitably boots you out or shuts down.