My Google Account has been banned!

Privacy and Security Discussions
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I wanted to share my experience of having my Google account banned 30 minutes ago, in the hopes that it will serve as a cautionary tale to other privacy advocates. As you may know, Google is a company that collects massive amounts of data on its users, and this data is used to fuel its advertising and other businesses.

Despite being aware of the privacy risks, I continued to use a Google account ONLY for Google Play because I prefer it over Aurora Store for security and feature reasons.

I realize now that my trust in Google was misplaced.

I urge everyone reading this to reconsider their use of Google services (if anyone uses them), and to seek out alternatives that respect your privacy and protect your data.

EDIT : I have sent an appeal to them…

EDIT 2 : My account has been recovered, so if any mod like @Henry can close this topic, that would be good.

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I feel sorry for you man I can help you with that

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Sorry man.

I have to ask - what’s the experience you wanted to share? You just stated that happend.

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Interested in the event which caused the ban.

I got deactivated by Favebook. My thought was because I was admin on a page that was removed. Never was I banned or warned. Just deactivated. Just grateful…

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As @ambrosio says, what actually happened?

Well yes, me too, I wold say this is good practice

do you have any idea why you were banned?

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I think it is because I’m using a VPN all the time and I am constanly switching servers. It may be also because I use an e-mail alias for my contact e-mail.

I have also used a SMSPool phone number for verification.

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Well, I was on my phone, on by browser, and then when I want to access Google Play, I have a message at the bottom saying that my Google Account was log out from my device and I should re-log in to use it, I also get a Google notification titled “Required action for your account” so I thought that I was accidentally log out so I enter my e-mail and my password and then I see the message “Your account has been deactivated”. They said that my account was used by automated programs or bots (which is false in my opinion). I have sent an appeal demand but in any case, I am ditching Google (Play).

Anyway, I wasn’t hugely impacted by it, since I was only using Google Play (and happily so). I have immediately downloaded and installed Aurora Store.

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Thank you for elaborating on that :+1:

I’m using VPN all the time as well, but it’s true, that I have just one location. Constant switching could be the reason :thinking:

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Google has reinstated my account 2 hours ago.

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How long had you been using your Google account when it was banned?

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Only 2-3 days, I’ve created one only for Google Play because I do not want to use an app store that hasn’t been updated since 1 year (Aurora Store).

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Okay, I see. So perhaps Google’s automated systems found the account you created suspicious and automatically flagged it. Personally, I haven’t had any issues with the Aurora Store, which, in any event, fetches apps from the Google Play Store.

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My Google Account has been banned!

congratulations! :partying_face:

i almost wish i had a gAAgle account to get banned… almost

oh dear, THAT’S a mistake! you might want to read this - here’s a snippet…

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I think you should change your topic post to say that your account was back up and running. It takes away from the whole cautionary tale element. Maybe just mention there is a risk with using a VPN. Not a risk of account loss just one of an inconvenience.

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I’m not a fan of this language at all there are very few things one could be certain about and phrasing this as fact closes off the debate for everyone else. While yes there are malware apps on the play store that doesn’t take away from the security of other apps or the play store in general. It’s more of a thing to avoid while using the play store than a reason to abandon the store altogether. The only other alternative is f-droid which could have a malicious update pushed to well established apps that would impact tons of users. Google requires signing on the update which guarantees it’s from the actual dev. Also the updates are notoriously hit or miss on f-droid its up to the dev to make sure the app is updated. On the play store you’ll basically never have to worry about using an old app you can just go to the store and update it. Case in point, bromite which i always seem to have to manually update the bromite versions are never pushed to f-droid in time. Also even if the play store is less secure which I disagree with but even if it was most android apps come from there. If I’m stranded in the middle of nowhere I’m using google maps not osmand. A lot of apps are exclusive to the play store and a lot of the time they’re just better minus the privacy invasions. If you’re going to be making these claims explain your rationale behind your thoughts. And be open to changing your mind when new evidence comes to light the privacy community needs people who are like this.

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agreed, but the fact is, the playstore is known to contain malware and f-droid isn’t - obviously this is not to say that there isn’t a spec of malware on f-droid, but if there is any, and it’s quite possible there is, it’s obviously a lot less than the play store

While yes there are malware apps on the play store that doesn’t take away from the security of other apps or the play store in general.

i didn’t imply, nor do i think, that all apps on the play store contain malware, but by my definition – that being code that isn’t relevant to the purpose of the app – most do (ads) and as the 11 links i provided suggest, it’s a lot worse than that

The only other alternative is f-droid which could have a malicious update pushed to well established apps that would impact tons of users.

  • f-droid serves a tiny fraction of the users compared to the play store
  • f-droid was audited in '17 (and perhaps since, i dunno) and was found to have 0 malware
  • gAAgle’s play store must serve at least 100’s of millions of users and is known to contain malware

if every single app on f-droid was malware it couldn’t possibly do as much damage as the play store has done and will continue to do

Google requires signing on the update which guarantees it’s from the actual dev.

that means exactly nothing regarding privacy or security - if it did, then malware wouldn’t exist on the store - it also doesn’t guarantee that the app was compiled from publicly available source code

Also the updates are notoriously hit or miss on f-droid its up to the dev to make sure the app is updated.

that’s the case no matter what source one uses, but yeah, if you’re implying that apps on f-droid can be older, that is true, but older doesn’t inherently mean less secure

Also even if the play store is less secure which I disagree with…

liking something doesn’t make it good, no matter how hard you like it

… but even if it was most android apps come from there.

apps don’t “come from” the play store - they are developed by developers who often publish their code on repositories such as github, the same places where f-droid gets source code (and compiles it themselves like google doesn’t do)

A lot of apps are exclusive to the play store and a lot of the time they’re just better minus the privacy invasions.

what’s the title of this forum again?

If you’re going to be making these claims explain your rationale behind your thoughts.

they aren’t my claims nor my thoughts - i supplied evidence which clearly shows that the play store contains malware, as you yourself admitted to, and that doesn’t include recent updates nor all the malware on the play store

And be open to changing your mind when new evidence comes to light…

i am, but you haven’t provided any

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Word to the wise

Your posts on this forum have been very alarming 12bytes. You have consistently spread misinformation whether that is through sheer incompetence or malice I’m not quite sure. I would be very cautious when stating things as fact if I were you.

Respone

What I am sure of is how illogical your points are you argue the straw man of malware on the apps store. Yet that is not a justification for the security of the play store as a whole, malware developers can get their apps published on the app store despite it’s security. That doesn’t necessarily mean google maps now has malware in it. You also make use of red herrings multiple times. You continue to hinge on the point that the presence of malware means the whole thing is insecure. Using your logic I could point to malware on f-droid or linux and claim these applations are insecure in general, obviously this would be ridiculous. I’m discrediting the work of thousands on the security front of these applications. So I’m not going to do that.

What I find the most alarming is that you say even if there was malware it wouldn’t affect much people. You argue that google play is insecure if we take your point at face value, it would seem that everyone should move to f-droid. However your argument is self defeating basically you’re saying everyone should move to f-droid because it has less people on it so less malware is on it. What you fail to realize is that if everyone were to move there the malware would follow suit. It’s paradoxical to say that apps will stay irrelevant despite a huge rise in daily users. I see this argument a lot from FOSS heads and if we don’t present our thoughts clearly and logically they will never be adopted mainstream.

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