The story of a journalist who was supposed to sign up for a Google Workspace plan that promised 'unlimited storage,' but was told that he had to cancel the contract because he was saving too much data and that there was no way to export it.



Tim Burke, an independent journalist, subscribed to a Google Workspace unlimited storage plan and stored a large amount of data, but when the unlimited storage plan was discontinued and his storage became read-only, he suddenly found himself with ``7. I received a notification that all data will be deleted in 2 days.

Google Promises Unlimited Cloud Storage; Then Cancels Plan; Then Tells Journalist His Life's Work Will Be Deleted Without Enough Time To Transfer The Data | Techdirt

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/12/google-promises-unlimited-cloud-storage-then-cancels-plan-then-tells-journalist-his-lifes-work-will-be-deleted- without-enough-time-to-transfer-the-data/

Mr. Burke subscribes to the Google Workspace Enterprise Standard plan and stores the data he has collected over the past few years in Google's cloud storage, and says, ``I have invested a large amount of money over a long period of time to have unlimited cloud storage capacity.'' I've come,'' he said. The content of the data was mainly video materials, and the total capacity was 237.22 TB.

However, Google is gradually phasing out the unlimited storage plan, and as per Mr. Burke, ``The account will be reloaded on July 10, 2023, 60 days later, because it has exceeded the storage allotted to the account.'' I received a notification that it will become private.



Since the above notification only stated that ``new data cannot be saved,'' Mr. Burke thought that the 237.22 TB of data he had saved so far would remain safely saved. Mr. Burke obtained and published a leaked movie from Fox News, and his house was searched by the FBI and all of his electronic devices were confiscated, so until the FBI returns his electronic devices and data, Google's cloud storage will not be available. It was the only place where data was stored.

Under these circumstances, on December 9, 2023, Mr. Burke received an email stating, ``The Google Workspace Enterprise Standard plan will be canceled on December 16, 2023, seven days later.'' All data will be lost after cancellation, so you will need to export it by the cancellation date, but even if you use all 7 days to transfer data, you will need to transfer data at a speed of approximately 3.14Gbps, and in reality It is almost impossible to export within the deadline as it requires time to prepare new storage.



Many comments have been received on the news site Hacker News regarding this issue, with opinions such as ``It's strange that there is only a week's grace period after notification of deletion'' and ``Google has suspended unlimited services. Therefore, it is a mistake to think that the data will be saved forever, and the data should have been moved when the first notification arrived.''

in Web Service, Posted by log1d_ts