Slashdot Mirror
Charter Accidentally Wipes 14K Email Accounts
dacut writes with the sad news that Charter Communications, which provides cable and Internet access to 2.6 million customers, accidentally and irretrievably wiped out 14,000 active email accounts while trying to clear out unused accounts. They're providing a $50 credit to each affected customer, which seems a paltry sum for anyone who was less than diligent about backing up their email — though those who relied on Charter's webmail interface had no easy way to accomplish backups. From the article: "There is no way to retrieve the messages, photos and other attachments that were erased from inboxes and archive folders across the country on Monday, said Anita Lamont, a spokeswoman for the suburban St. Louis-based company. 'We really are sincerely sorry for having had this happen and do apologize to all those folks who were affected by the error,' Lamont said Thursday when the company announced the gaffe."
I've always told users, that email is not a storage medium. It's a volatile one.
Yes, they should have had backups now days, but none the less, if you want it saved, don't leave it in your inbox.
I've had folks complain that the trash automatically was cleaned out every three days. WTF?
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
Unlike Charter (who probably uses something not all that different from an mbox file), Google has a global, highly redundant data store that is easier to insert information into than it is to delete from. Even when an email is "deleted" from the GMail interface, there's no guarantee that the data in GoogleFS is actually gone. Google themselves have stated that it may take months (or even years) before the data is purged from the system.
:-/
Which is part of the reason why I actually trust Google with my email. I wouldn't mind them providing a proper backup mechanism (no, POP3 isn't a worthwhile mechanism for me), but it simply isn't as necessary as some hosting providers.
That being said, this entire mess could have been avoided if someone took a tape backup before purging data from the system...
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Back in the dot-com days I worked for a local ISP, and established my online identity over the years. The company died, and I lost my long-established email address. Lesson learned - I obtained my own domain name and webhosting, just on shared servers, mind you, and now I have a portable identity that I have control over. Webhost screwing up? I've had it happen a few times now. I just point the domain elsewhere. I have unlimited POP, IMAP, and even webmail. Multiple spam controls that I can fiddle with. And I don't have to worry about Google, Yahoo, etc fiddling with anything either.
It isn't hard, either. My 63-yo father is now doing the same thing, as he switched ISPs for the first time now that he can get DSL out on the farm, and he isn't the most technical guy.