For quite a while, I’ve been using Google’s Picasa image hosting service. Mostly, I uploaded images of vintage advertisements, funny old photos, as well as photographs I’ve taken myself, photos from my iPhone, of paintings, and so on. There were over 1,000 images last time I looked (a week or so ago).
Today when I wanted to upload an image to use in a blog post, I discovered all of the images were deleted, with the cryptic notice saying:
This content has been removed because it violates our Terms of Service
So, everything was gone. No way to contact Google to complain, they didn’t give me a heads-up, explaining: image so-and-so violates our Terms of Service because…
No, just zapped it all, every single item. Photos of my cat, photos of jazz albums from another era, everything, gone.
Fuck you, Google, for being evil, tone deaf, and profoundly customer unfriendly. Would it really have been so difficult to send an email explaining, and giving me a chance to rectify whatever problems you thought you found?
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update 3-11-11
Sometimes bitching on Twitter has positive consequences. This morning, a representative from Picasa looked into my case, mostly because I complained I didn’t get the email I was supposed to get. Apparently, someone clicked the “Report Abuse” button, and this lead to my account being zapped. Since I didn’t get notified, my account has been made active again. I’m grateful for that, but still seems like a flaw in the process if getting someone’s account suspended is so simple. Probably a paid representative of the Tea Baggers objected to something factual, and decided to irritate me.
Those bastards. That’s just evil. I’m sorry, Seth, that really sucks.
Update: after bitching extensively about this on Twitter, an employee from Picasa looked into the matter, and eventually restored my account. Guess I should update this blog too
Bow down to Twitter. I’m glad you got your account back.