> A few stories in the news represents a beyond negligible fraction of billions of user accounts.
https://support.google.com/accounts/threads?thread_filter=(c...
How many times do you have to click "View more" to reach a post from last week? It's a problem.
The repeated advice from the "diamond product experts" says it all:
If you can't recover your account using Google's automated recovery process, the account is lost. [1]
Personally I thought I was OK because I had a recovery email set but what Google doesn't tell you is they outright refuse to even send a recovery email if you don't use a device, browser and same wifi they've seen before. [2]. At the time I was all in on Gmail so it was an especially sobering experience.
I accept it's a hard problem to protect that many accounts, but to dismiss it as a "few stories" is understating the problem and diminishes the terrifying experience all these users are having.
[1]: https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/453660883/locked-...
[2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleSupport/comments/1ps28fn/coul...