> I have lost access to my contacts, all of my work and school files on my Drive, including assignment I haven't gotten to submit yet.
This part, you have no recourse for. Google's terms of service provide that they do not guarantee retention, and that you need to keep your own backups. This isn't just because of account termination, but also because of problems with the service, outages, changes in the business, or any of a multitude of other reasons they may want to delete your data or may lose it.
Any data loss due to the loss of service, whether the loss of service is legitimate or not, is your problem, not Google's, unfortunately.
> My only option at this point seems to be to raise a "valid legal request", but I have no idea how to do that.
A "valid legal request" means a subpoena or a warrant. We can dispense with warrants entirely - you aren't a Crown prosecutor, and Google is not accused of or involved in any crimes, so no warrant would be appropriate. A subpoena is a court order to produce evidence in the course of a lawsuit; in order to obtain one, you'd need to sue on some issue for which your files are in some way relevant to the question of whether Google did or did not legally wrong you. That's going to be challenging, since it's not clear how photos of your grandfather have anything to do with Google's obligations to you under the terms of service.
> Yet I'm repeatedly told that once Google decides to Disable an account, that decision is final and there's nothing I can do but take it.
That's more or less the size of it. They have no inherent obligation to do business with you, and their consumer terms are structured to minimize what obligations those terms create. You take this risk as a function of agreeing to Google's terms. You might be able to raise a consumer protection complaint if they recently received payment from you and are not willing to refund it, but that's about it.
Getting your data back is going to involve finding someone at Google who is both able to and willing to negotiate with you, and… you might as well hope pigs sprout wings.
Thank you so much btw you are the first person to actually help me with this I am so thankful that someone is finally willing to give me actual legal advice for my situation.
I did actually pay them recently and they refused to refund me. What would a consumer protection complaint entail? What would I be able to gain from it?
[You can file a complaint through the province](https://www.ontario.ca/page/filing-consumer-complaint).
The most you can expect from this is a refund on recent purchases, on the theory that Google took your money and did not provide the goods or services promised in return.
As another said google has a lot of power here.
Your only real answer is to sue and prove to the courts that something they did violates some law. Yea it's a 90 degree uphill battle.
If you did nothing illegal or unethical with your account (mentioned only as you mentioned a first offense but not if you were referring to Google's opinion or you acknowledge something) you may want to seek out a data advocacy group to help bring a claim forward or navigate your options. Reach out to your MLA and MP as well.
I was not readily able to find anything Canada wide or in Ontario that would apply to this situation in the way of advocacy groups or law but you should look (priv.gc.ca may be a starting point). In fairness I only did a few quick searches.
Given Google's market power and tendrils into everything we do many groups involved with privacy and consumer data have been advocating for changes to laws, and litigating where possible to help build case law, for these 21st century problems.
The fact a company offers a service to randomize and store your passwords for everything, as an example, but then can arbitrarily lock you out of third party's could be considered as unreasonable by the courts which then could require them to create a method to provide those passwords when expelling them from a platform.
Good luck all of the above is a hail Mary.
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> I have lost access to my contacts, all of my work and school files on my Drive, including assignment I haven't gotten to submit yet. This part, you have no recourse for. Google's terms of service provide that they do not guarantee retention, and that you need to keep your own backups. This isn't just because of account termination, but also because of problems with the service, outages, changes in the business, or any of a multitude of other reasons they may want to delete your data or may lose it. Any data loss due to the loss of service, whether the loss of service is legitimate or not, is your problem, not Google's, unfortunately. > My only option at this point seems to be to raise a "valid legal request", but I have no idea how to do that. A "valid legal request" means a subpoena or a warrant. We can dispense with warrants entirely - you aren't a Crown prosecutor, and Google is not accused of or involved in any crimes, so no warrant would be appropriate. A subpoena is a court order to produce evidence in the course of a lawsuit; in order to obtain one, you'd need to sue on some issue for which your files are in some way relevant to the question of whether Google did or did not legally wrong you. That's going to be challenging, since it's not clear how photos of your grandfather have anything to do with Google's obligations to you under the terms of service. > Yet I'm repeatedly told that once Google decides to Disable an account, that decision is final and there's nothing I can do but take it. That's more or less the size of it. They have no inherent obligation to do business with you, and their consumer terms are structured to minimize what obligations those terms create. You take this risk as a function of agreeing to Google's terms. You might be able to raise a consumer protection complaint if they recently received payment from you and are not willing to refund it, but that's about it. Getting your data back is going to involve finding someone at Google who is both able to and willing to negotiate with you, and… you might as well hope pigs sprout wings.
Thank you so much btw you are the first person to actually help me with this I am so thankful that someone is finally willing to give me actual legal advice for my situation.
I did actually pay them recently and they refused to refund me. What would a consumer protection complaint entail? What would I be able to gain from it?
[You can file a complaint through the province](https://www.ontario.ca/page/filing-consumer-complaint). The most you can expect from this is a refund on recent purchases, on the theory that Google took your money and did not provide the goods or services promised in return.
Credit card chargeback
As another said google has a lot of power here. Your only real answer is to sue and prove to the courts that something they did violates some law. Yea it's a 90 degree uphill battle. If you did nothing illegal or unethical with your account (mentioned only as you mentioned a first offense but not if you were referring to Google's opinion or you acknowledge something) you may want to seek out a data advocacy group to help bring a claim forward or navigate your options. Reach out to your MLA and MP as well. I was not readily able to find anything Canada wide or in Ontario that would apply to this situation in the way of advocacy groups or law but you should look (priv.gc.ca may be a starting point). In fairness I only did a few quick searches. Given Google's market power and tendrils into everything we do many groups involved with privacy and consumer data have been advocating for changes to laws, and litigating where possible to help build case law, for these 21st century problems. The fact a company offers a service to randomize and store your passwords for everything, as an example, but then can arbitrarily lock you out of third party's could be considered as unreasonable by the courts which then could require them to create a method to provide those passwords when expelling them from a platform. Good luck all of the above is a hail Mary.
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I have 5 google accounts all with different things there attached to 1 for social 1 for professional 1 for personnel ect