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

[jmstfv]

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.

[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 → jrhey]

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 → jmstfv]

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

[jmstfv → ipaddr]

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.

[tomcam → ipaddr]

wtf

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