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Author Topic: Anyone here work for Google?  (Read 1874 times)

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Offline Sandwich

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Anyone here work for Google?
on: November 04, 2018, 01:41:00 am
In 2010, my second daughter was born. As we did for my first daughter, we created a Gmail account on her behalf, both to reserve a vaguely decent username, but also to have a place where my wife and I, as well as grandparents and other relatives could email her with life memories as she was growing up.

The problem is that we can no longer get into that account. We have years of emails showing that we've been interacting with that account, but no actual proof that Google's automated account recovery page will consider. It asks us for the last password we used for the account (we have text strings we strongly suspect are part of the password, but the devil's in the spelling details), her birth city (which we obviously DO have), and... that's it!

I'd like to know if there's a separate email account associated with the account as a recovery address. We haven't changed email addresses since before 2010, so we still have access to whatever account that would be. My suspicion however is that there might have been a typo when we entered it.

Anyway, if you work for Google or can help in any other way, please PM me!  :(
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"...The quintessential quality of our age is that of dreams coming true. Just think of it. For centuries we have dreamt of flying; recently we made that come true: we have always hankered for speed; now we have speeds greater than we can stand: we wanted to speak to far parts of the Earth; we can: we wanted to explore the sea bottom; we have: and so  on, and so on: and, too, we wanted the power to smash our enemies utterly; we have it. If we had truly wanted peace, we should have had that as well. But true peace has never been one of the genuine dreams - we have got little further than preaching against war in order to appease our consciences. The truly wishful dreams, the many-minded dreams are now irresistible - they become facts." - 'The Outward Urge' by John Wyndham

"The very essence of tolerance rests on the fact that we have to be intolerant of intolerance. Stretching right back to Kant, through the Frankfurt School and up to today, liberalism means that we can do anything we like as long as we don't hurt others. This means that if we are tolerant of others' intolerance - especially when that intolerance is a call for genocide - then all we are doing is allowing that intolerance to flourish, and allowing the violence that will spring from that intolerance to continue unabated." - Bren Carlill
 

Offline Ghostavo

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Re: Anyone here work for Google?
Reply #1 on: November 04, 2018, 05:45:33 am
I don't work for Google, but have some experience with maintaining authentication systems and I've seen this question below come up often enough that it might be useful to answer it even if I can't help you. :(

Quote
It asks us for the last password we used for the account (we have text strings we strongly suspect are part of the password, but the devil's in the spelling details)

From a user standpoint it might seem like the company has access the user's passwords, but if the company knows what it's doing (and I assume Google does), passwords are not stored in plain text but are stored after being hashed. This is to prevent a whole set of issues, like the passwords being stolen in a usable way, prevent misuse by and/or improve trust in the maintenance team, etc.

The way a good hash is supposed to work makes this line of thought even more difficult, because a very small change in input is supposed to lead to a very different output, making any sorts of comparisons of inputs based on output challenging.


It's probably best to email Gmail support and ask them what sort of proof they would accept for account ownership besides the account's password.
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Offline Sandwich

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Re: Anyone here work for Google?
Reply #2 on: November 04, 2018, 06:25:15 am
Quote from: Ghostavo on November 04, 2018, 05:45:33 am
...email Gmail support...

Therein lies the problem. ;) They don't provide any way to contact them. I managed to get into a support chat for Google Drive (exclusively), and the tech person there told me there is no interactive support for account issues.  :blah:
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"...The quintessential quality of our age is that of dreams coming true. Just think of it. For centuries we have dreamt of flying; recently we made that come true: we have always hankered for speed; now we have speeds greater than we can stand: we wanted to speak to far parts of the Earth; we can: we wanted to explore the sea bottom; we have: and so  on, and so on: and, too, we wanted the power to smash our enemies utterly; we have it. If we had truly wanted peace, we should have had that as well. But true peace has never been one of the genuine dreams - we have got little further than preaching against war in order to appease our consciences. The truly wishful dreams, the many-minded dreams are now irresistible - they become facts." - 'The Outward Urge' by John Wyndham

"The very essence of tolerance rests on the fact that we have to be intolerant of intolerance. Stretching right back to Kant, through the Frankfurt School and up to today, liberalism means that we can do anything we like as long as we don't hurt others. This means that if we are tolerant of others' intolerance - especially when that intolerance is a call for genocide - then all we are doing is allowing that intolerance to flourish, and allowing the violence that will spring from that intolerance to continue unabated." - Bren Carlill
 

Offline Ghostavo

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Re: Anyone here work for Google?
Reply #3 on: November 04, 2018, 06:41:59 am
Try using their help forums then:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/gmail

It boggles my mind they go out of their way not to provide a way to contact them, but hey, Google is not exactly known for helping users.

P.S.
Their most likely response will be:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#%21topic/gmail/SzwFXkqLvr0
« Last Edit: November 04, 2018, 07:18:51 am by Ghostavo »
"Closing the Box" - a campaign in the making :nervous:

Shrike is a dirty dirty admin, he's the destroyer of souls... oh god, let it be glue...
 

Offline Phantom Hoover

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Re: Anyone here work for Google?
Reply #4 on: November 04, 2018, 05:51:09 pm
google are much like valve, they are web service companies seeking the perfect capitalist eschaton of creating money-hoovers that require no investment of effort on their part to suck up cash

avoiding the complex and expensive apparatus of a human customer support division is a strategy to this end that seems to be working out well for them
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.
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