免费谷歌工作区账户被错误指控为商业用途
我们都知道谷歌一直在试图淘汰他们的免费旧版 Google Workspace 账户。之前他们几乎完全实现了这一点，但在最后一刻又撤回了这个决定。
我从那时起就拥有一个这样的账户，当时它被称为 Google Apps For Your Domain。这是我和几个朋友的主要谷歌账户。那时我们并没有将其用于商业，现在也没有。我只想拥有一个普通的消费者免费谷歌账户，但我也希望我和我的朋友能够在我们的电子邮件地址上使用自己的域名，而不是 gmail.com。正因为如此，我们在 Google Workspace 中被困了整整二十年。这真是个大错误。如果我有一台时光机，可以回去阻止自己就好了。
就在上周，我收到了一封电子邮件，称我们的免费 Google Workspace 账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账户，要么账户被删除，要么提出上诉。
当然，我提出了上诉，但并没有抱太大希望。上诉时没有任何方式可以添加信息，只是一个按钮。是的，我上诉了。
上诉结果不出所料地被拒绝了。没有解释，没有证据。只是一个简单的拒绝，没有进一步的选项或信息提供。
你想看看政策吗？他们提供的链接在这里：
https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/billing/transition-from-a-free-edition
我在那个页面上找到的唯一政策是“个人非商业使用”这句话。如果有人有更详细的政策解释链接，以便我能找到我们可能违反的任何线索，请告诉我。
现在对我和少数朋友来说，我们唯一的选择似乎是支付每个用户每月 7 美元的荒谬费用，以获得与消费者 Gmail 账户几乎相同的服务，唯一的区别是我们的电子邮件地址使用自定义域名。至少在我们经历大量的 Google 数据导出和重新导入到其他地方的巨大努力之前是这样。是的，我有自动备份，因为我早已为这种情况做好准备。但这仍然是一个痛苦的迁移，我宁愿一开始就不必经历。
我知道人们有时会在 HN 上发布这样的故事，希望大科技公司的某个有权人士会注意到并来解决这个问题。我不能否认，如果那样发生我不会抱怨。但我对此没有任何期待。我也不喜欢获得特殊待遇。我真正想要的是所有用户都能得到公平对待。
与其乞求帮助，我更希望倡导法律救济。我实际上同意私营公司应该能够为其服务设定几乎任何使用政策，并在任何时候以几乎任何理由禁止任何人。然而，我认为他们有法律义务完整地公布这些政策。如果用户被发现违反了这些政策，公司应该被要求明确指出违反了政策的哪一部分。此外，他们还应该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实的人类上诉流程，那将是理想的。但至少如果他们引用政策并提供证据，将使用户更容易通过法律系统或仲裁（如果有约束性仲裁条款）寻求救济。
最后，我想提醒大家。每当你注册一个你无法控制的平台时，请始终准备好这些账户随时可能被删除而没有任何警告。这就是我很久以前就建立备份流程的原因。这也是我停止注册新的专有平台的原因。我现在仍在使用的那些平台将是我最后使用的。尽管自我托管的设置过程很麻烦，但我向你保证，这比被迫逃离一个专有平台要轻松得多，因为它不可避免地会将你踢出或关闭。
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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.