Google Confirms User Data Deletion Error—Who Is Impacted, What To Do
Google confirms it has deleted data in error.
Hot on the heels of confirming a major scam involving more than 10,000 fake listings and hacked accounts impacting searches for Google Maps users, Google has made a non-apology to users after their data was deleted and, for those without encrypted backups, might be gone forever.
As I first reported March 11, some users of Google Maps had been taking to the support forums to angrily complain that when they went to view their timeline data there was nothing there. Nada. It had all, quite literally, vanished into the ether. One person said that Every single day for the last 3+ years just disappeared… and I can't load my local backup, only the option to delete it.' This appeared to be unconnected to the warnings being issued at the same time in the form of notification emails about changes being made to the Google Maps timeline feature, which required urgent action to prevent data from being deleted. It was, indeed, a mystery. Google had not confirmed or denied the issue; there was radio silence as to what was happening, which left users in the dark as to where their data had gone until now.
Some Google Maps users received a March 21 email from Google which, while still not actually apologizing for deleting their data, did go some way to explain what was happening and what could be done to restore the lost timelines. Well, restore the timelines of some users, at least.
The email in question explained that google had 'briefly experienced a technical issue that caused the deletion of Timeline data for some people,' and that the company was reaching out to those who may have been impacted. 'If you have encrypted backups enabled,' Google said, 'you may be able to restore your data.' If and may are doing a lot of heavy lifting, it seems. Those users with the latest version of Google Maps were advised to go to their timeline and hit the cloud icon before selecting the option to import a backup of data. 'If you did not have backups turned on, unfortunately you will not be able to recover lost data,' Google said, without as much as a sorry. About the nearest to an apology the email got was by saying 'We understand that this can be frustrating if you use Timeline to remember places you've visited, and we are taking steps to improve our systems for the future.'
Well, gee, thanks Google. I'm sure those users who have lost their curated Google Maps timeline data forever will be sympathetic. Of course, all of this does reinforce the importance of keeping regular backups of all your data. You never know when disaster will strike, be it from a technical issue or cyber threat such as ransomware or other malware.
I have approached Google for a statement.
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