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Gmail accidentally resets some accounts

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wraith808:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/27/gmail-accidentally-resetting-accounts-years-of-correspondence-v/

Some gmail users lost all of their data (the supposed percentage affected is .08%, or approximately 150k users by estimates of gmail's user base.  Many people on the conversation at engadget talk about the fact that a free service lost e-mail... what else are you supposed to expect.  But as a person that took a long time to move to gmail (and for the longest time I used a re-direct at my own domain to route e-mails to gmail and my own domain to be downloaded), one of the reasons I moved to actually using my gmail e-mail address was because of exactly those kinds of implied assurances in advertisements, and a level of comfort that was my own fault.

After years of reconditioning myself to use my gmail email addresses, I now find myself at a crossroads- should I move back to my own e-mail address and use gmail merely a convenience?

But the real question is, even if they aren't contractually obligated to see to the security of e-mails of their users, are they not trying to make users comfortable with their service so that there will be that assumption that google is a safe place to keep your e-mails rather than the old fashioned way of using mail servers?  And what about google apps for domains?  What kind of assurances do they give you with those?  Especially since you're essentially in the same boat?  My company is moving to google apps for domains- I'm pretty sure that as a pretty big player in their market, this switch wouldn't have been made if there weren't some assurances.

Thoughts?

4wd:
I have 7 GMail accounts, I only use GMail accounts, I have no other email accounts.

If any or all of them got wiped of emails it's not a problem because any of the accounts I use for important stuff are POP3 accessed and downloaded to my local machine and then backed up.

Non-important accounts are IMAP and as such I don't really care if all the emails in them are lost.

Honestly, if your emails are that important to you, then it doesn't matter who is providing your email service - you should be providing a backup for them.

If you're [dumb|naive|uninformed|silly|blase|etc] enough to leave anything that's important to you solely in the hands of another then ultimately you are responsible for what happens to it, not them.

PS. Considering the amount of crap one of my friends collects in his account, wiping it would be the best thing.   :P

Armando:
"What else are you supposed to expect."

... Isn't this the perfect warning : don't trust "the cloud". Well, not too much. Backup your data yourself, have duplicates on site and elsewhere.

The best cheap and easy e-mail solution I found (a long time ago) was to have my own domain and forward everything to various e-mail services... and then download stuff to Outlook. So I'm not tied to any specific company and I can own all my correspondence. The only risk I'm taking is to loose my domain... Very unlikely.

I'm not familiar with the google apps for domains contracts, so I can't comment...

Josh:
Is this why gmail has never left the "beta" state?

nudone:
Is this why gmail has never left the "beta" state?
-Josh (February 28, 2011, 03:26 AM)
--- End quote ---
I think it has now. But they provide a gadget in their Labs to put the "beta" back near the logo.

Funny that, maybe Google will feel the need to put it back themselves now.

(Sounds like I should start making a backup. I've been super lazy about it. Anyone got a good suggestion on how to do it - quick and easily.)

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