Yeah.
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So in a week to ten days, you can call the office and ask for the name of the staff member assigned to constituent matter number X or whatever they gave you. Then you’ll have a name, and you can take 90 seconds to introduce yourself and say thank you and receive a super quick status report — maybe get an extension or an email for when you contact them again.
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I can’t make any assurances about the feasibility of this, but investigate the possibility of making a small-claims filing for maximum damages in their jurisdiction (which may include your own) against/including a mid-to-high level Google executive personally. If the filing is successful, that individual can be compelled to attend, or risk a default judgement. You could receive several thousand dollars (which you could possibly ask the judge to apply to your “debt”), or more likely, force some higher-level attention be given to your issue. It could magically go away. If the claim is accepted and there is a default judgement, there could be press interest as well “See how one couple took on Google and won!” clickbait articles. You don’t need to hire a lawyer for small claims court, and judges and their staff overseeing the cases are often sympathetic to small claimants and can help with the process.
Edit: IANAL, but I’m related to several, and I read loweringthebar.com regularly :). Obviously, some research is required (I tried duckduckgo - Google searches were unhelpful), but I have a vague recollection of some precedents being established in the US about the right to have your data deleted, or allowing bulk downloads. I know there are laws in the EU that give you more rights. I wish I could be more helpful, but if you could get even a weak claim accepted, anything related to this, down to some weird local statute about being rude on the phone, you could get the attention you need to solve the actual problem.
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Also, obviously, being featured on BoingBoing’s front page would help, too. Do the editors regularly read these? Can somebody with some influence point them to this post and get one of them in touch with the posters? I’d be totally screwed if the same thing happened to me, so I think this is of general interest and fits the site’s theme. I think, properly verified, this would make for a good article.
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Maybe @doctorow will ask am EFF investigator or intake worker to staff it over there and consider what if snything they’re funded to do. Or a referral?
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That’d be grand! But I don’t want to force the issue…really the blog is supposed to be about wonderful things, not my whining. And I’m sure my problems are pretty minor even in the scope of this community.
But here are some flowers!
And a proud lizard.
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You know it’s likely happening as a matter of policy because Google. That means it’s probably impacting others so you’re helping just by voicing the concern publicly.
Whether @doctorow or EFF have the bandwidth and resources to prioritize this particular issue of the many that need attention is probably the question.
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Damn. I knew Google Wallet was something to stay far away from. I wonder when they’re just going to turn off Books. Probably just after they spin it off. So it’ll either be piracy or Amazon. Barf.
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This was the cream of the Burning Man crop, he said.“This is a high percentage of San Francisco entrepreneurs, and they tend to be winners. It’s a curated, self-selected group of adults who have jobs,” Schmidt said. “You can tell by the percentage of trailers.”
Okay, wow.
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