Gmail Accidentally Resets 150,000 Accounts

tsj5j writes "Many users have reported loss of their Gmail accounts, as they signed in to find their email accounts reset — losing years of email history. This appears to be a result of a bug which treats existing owners as new users. For those affected, Google is currently trying to resolve the problem. For the rest of us, perhaps this is a timely reminder to backup our data and be less trusting of the cloud."

Comments

IMAP

[jdb2]

This is *exactly* why I have my Gmail account linked to Thunderbird via IMAP and I perform regular backups.

jdb2

Re:IMAP

[JamesP]

I wouldn't trust Thunderbird not to mess this up...

For a Mozilla product, TB is really poor.

What idiot trusts the cloud?

[dtmos]

I mean, even its name is vaporous.

Re:What idiot trusts the cloud?

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. "Oh, I think I'll put all my important information completely under someone else's control. That way, when it's lost, I can just point the finger at the cloud instead of taking responsibility for my own data."

Re:What idiot trusts the cloud?

[delinear]

Actually, given the technical ability of the average person, that's probably not a bad thing. This way they have at least some chance of someone technically competent at Google solving the issue for them. If they'd stored it locally and wiped it they'd probably be kissing goodbye to it instead of having a reasonable chance of recovering it. For most people's lolcat and pyramid mails that's a good enough solution - obviously if you're relying on it for storing your company accounts then that's another matter.

Re:What idiot trusts the cloud?

[nexttech]

Because its safer then my hard drive.

It would be interesting to see how many users had their hard drive crash and lost everything yesterday.

Re:What idiot trusts the cloud?

[LordLimecat]

It comes down to who you trust more. I have several clients who are looking at email solutions; two options are "host it inhouse with exchange and backup to tape / backupexec", or "Google Docs, and let a dedicated team handle it".

At the end of the day, they arent going to want to pay for my time to monitor backups, or perform restore testing, or rotate tapes daily. So do i trust that non-technical users will remember to rotate daily (I have several who forget, not realizing its importance despite reminders), or do I trust that Google will overall have less downtime and fewer disasters than a server with no physical monitoring or weekly maintenance?

I will note that gMail's track record is pretty darn good since its inception; I only remember seeing 2-3 other stories like this in that time, with % affected being very low in a few cases, and I do not ever remember seeing a permenant data-loss scenario. Contrast to the real world, where I go to do a restore for said clients, and it turns out they havent rotated tapes in ages, or the tape drive has needed cleaning for years, or their online backup that they picked out (sans my advice) doesnt actually capture exchange or system state... etc.

So sure, make claims that "the cloud" is untrustworthy... but there are scores of companies that rely on consultants for server setup and then never have an IT person set foot in the "server room" for several years thereafter-- and thats PRECISELY the market that "the cloud" is perfect for. You offload IT work from non-skilled folks to skilled folks, with the downside of relying on connectivity (though gmail has offline mode...).

Only I value my data enough to protect it properly

[Anonymous Coward]

There is only one person in the world who values my data enough to protect it properly, and that person is me.

Re:Only I value my data enough to protect it prope

[camperdave]

There is only one person in the world who values my data enough to protect it properly, and that person is me.

...And I don't eve trust that person to do it properly.

Re:Only I value my data enough to protect it prope

[1s44c]

There is only one person in the world who values my data enough to protect it properly, and that person is me.

Dam right. Trusting your email to a company who's main business is mining data can't be safe either. Having your data spread out over god knows how many countries and subject to the whims of who knows what government agencies doesn't sound like a good idea.

I run my own mail server and do nightly backups of my whole mailstore. Any decent linux admin should be able to setup a cheap virtual machine and a BackupPC server at home to do the same. In fact any decent linux admin should enjoy setting it up.

Re:Gmail has always been somewhat of a crapshoot

[linuxgurugamer]

Happened with Bigfoot.com. They advertised free unlimited email, then one day they started limiting it to 20 messages a day. I left them as soon as I was able to change all the accounts pointing to it.

Now I have my own domain, and while it's on a CPanel-based box somewhere in Texas, I can do regular nightly backups of everything, and if I need to can move it to another host and simply change the DNS.

Not so much of a story, really

[RivenAleem]

Google has already stated they have a resolution, but it may take a little time to implement. They have backups, and will restore the accounts. This seems like a case of:

Something went wrong, they're fixing it.

The End.

Re:Not so much of a story, really

[Daley_G]

This is all true, but would there be as much traffic on this article had the headline read something like "Gmail Accidentally Resets .004% of the Total Number of Accounts, and they'll have it fixed soon" ? Media generates hype. Hype generates income.

Re:User education about faults and backups needed

[Ephemeriis]

Honestly, I think that for most people this just isn't a concern.

Most folks have been bitten by the lack of a backup at some point. You can't tell me they've never been working on a paper for a class and had the machine crap out on them - losing many pages of work. You can't tell me they've never been playing a game and had the machine crap out on them - losing a couple hours of progress. You can't tell me they've never sent an SD card through the laundry - losing some irreplaceable photos. You can't tell me they've never clicked "submit" on some forum comment or Facebook post and had the website malfunction - losing whatever witty thoughts they had at the time.

It happens all the freaking time.

But, for the most part, that information isn't all that valuable.

Folks will curse and mutter... And then re-type their paper, or re-play the game, or live without those pictures.

Folks won't feel like they need to back up their data until they're really burned by it. Just telling people that they need to make backups is not enough. Just teaching it in class isn't enough. Folks need to lose something that they care about.

How many people really know how to do backups?

[Anonymous Coward]

The idea that everyone should personally handle backing up their email is insanity. If you're a professional at this stuff, then fine, do it at home as well. But for nearly everyone in the population, gmail is going to be vastly more reliable than any backup scheme they come up with at home.

For the average smtp/pop user, email works like this:
1. Grab all the new messages off the server.
2. Read a few, respond to fewer.
3. Leave all of them on the PC's non-backed-up hard drive forever.
4. Eventually buy a new computer, losing all previous messages.
5. Discard the old computer with all the old mail sitting wide open on the HD, along with Quicken, etc., for any attacker who happens upon it.

Gmail is a _vast_ improvement in security and reliability over what non-technical people wind up doing with smtp-based mail.