My Google account got suspended because of NewPipe

[haistakaavittukaikkisaatana]

My Google account got suspended yesterday, I was like what the heck is going on. First I got an email from Google saying that I was using 3rd party app outside of Play Store to go around Youtube ads, also it said that my account has been suspended. I got locked out of my Google account, I had to factory reset my phone and create a new Google account.

NewPipe is the only app that I downloaded outside of Play Store, so beware guys.

I really have no idea how they can suspend my account since NewPipe isnt even using any Google account information, it only retrieves the video source.

[haistakaavittukaikkisaatana]

Maybe its Google Backup that triggered it, somekind of algorithm that noticed 3rd party app or settings and traced the app, who knows.

[gkeegan]

How long have you used NewPipe? I've downloaded hundreds of gigabytes over the few years and have had no issues. Also, what region are you in?

If you have a screenshot of what the email said could you attach it here?

[TobiGr]

That sounds serious. Could you please show us the mail content?

[haistakaavittukaikkisaatana]

Unfortunately I dont cant access my Gmail anymore since its suspended, and I forgot to take a screenshot, Im sorry.

Im from Finland, and Ive been using NewPipe around 2 weeks.

I didnt install NewPipe yet after factory resetting my phone, I will stick to default Youtube app for now.

And I didnt download anything with NewPipe, only used it to watch videos.

[TobiGr]

Hmm. That's bad and I am sorry for you. I have never hear of this happen because of NewPipe. You can try these steps to restore your account.

[haistakaavittukaikkisaatana]

I tried to restore my account by using my phone number, but I was unable to restore it due to violation of Googles terms.

Oh well, its not the end of the world though.

[undeadfox]

and Ive been using NewPipe around 2 weeks.

Have you used subscriptions import/export?

[haistakaavittukaikkisaatana]

No I didnt use that feature.

[Better521]

Maybe haistakaavittukaikkisaatana is a troll. Why that name? In Finnish Haistakaa vittu kaikki saatana is (Fu*k You all bastards)

[haistakaavittukaikkisaatana]

Now that I think this more it couldnt be Google Backup either because I have it set to manual to save some battery life, and I didnt backup my phone yesterday.

[Iolaum]

How old was your Google Account when it was suspended? Maybe your usage was irregular enough to trigger something related to abuse detection?

[duiker101]

That's crazy, does this mean they could ban your account for using ublock on youtube?

[resynth1943]

Downvoted because this is shocking. I'm so sorry to hear you've gone through this bullshit.

[ghost]

@duiker101 that day will also come now I think.

[resynth1943]

Ask them what evidence they have that proves you've been a naughty boy :p using NewPipe.

[duiker101]

@resynth1943 ask who? Google is notoriously hard to contact. And when you do they don't really car. Remember, with Google you are not a customer but the product.

[resynth1943]

@duiker101 I've dealt with companies like this before, GitHub and NPM. Just threaten them with GDPR, and they'll run a mile for you.

[resynth1943]

Also, I'm going to be old-fashioned and say what I see, and here, I can see spyware.

[hkzlab]

@haistakaavittukaikkisaatana Did you have Play Protect enabled in the play store? That indeed scans the applications you have installed in your unit, afaik it also sends info to Google for analysis

EDIT: Just to point out, I'm not suggesting to anyone to disable this feature. I personally don't use devices with Play Services, so I don't have it, but until we're sure that this is the issue, it would be unwise to disable security features.

[iyesin]

@hkzlab Play Protect is enabled by default on new devices.

[hkzlab]

@iyesin Which is a good way for Google to know that he installed NewPipe...

[mngad]

@iyesin can you disable it?

[iyesin]

@hkzlab true. As same as other "misbehaving" applications.

[dhruvasagar]

@mngad Yes we can disable it, I just did. You have to click on the 'settings' button on the top right and disable it.

[iyesin]

@mngad sure. Both in Google account settings and in Play Store settings. This, most likely, would prevent some critical applications to start. (i.e. some banking apps and Google Pay).

[dhruvasagar]

@iyesin @mngad Google Play Store and Chase app are both able to start. Not sure about others.

[resynth1943]

This was bound to happen someday, anyway. I use YouTube Vanced and NewPipe, so I guess that's double the risk? :stuck_out_tongue:

So, from what I can see here, users that use third-party applications that do naughty things (that aren't on the Play Store) should disable Play Protect as a start. That scans all your apps, as suggested by a previous commenter.

I'll definitely be keeping my ear to the ground on this one. Let us know if Google gets back to you.

[iyesin]

@dhruvasagar I wasn't taking about Play Store. I recently had bad experience (just silent crash on login screen) with Commerzbank app.

[echelon]

This is getting a lot of attention as the top-voted submission on Hacker News. It'll draw the attention of Google engineers, which can hopefully help corroborate and assist in fixing this issue.

Let's hope they reach out and offer some background on this.

[mngad]

Especially to OP

[mrusme]

From my experience it helps to have a paid Gsuite account in order to not lose access to your own stuff just like that. I know this isn’t great, but quite frankly speaking the Gsuite support is usually super friendly and helpful.

Edit: Thanks for all the thumbs down, it’s saddening how intolerant GitHub became towards statements of own experience, while having even suffixed this statement myself with “I know this isn’t great”.

[sova]

I think Larry and Sergey would actually be pretty frustrated with an outcome like this. Anybody got their e-mail?

[resynth1943]

@sova They won't, but hopefully the publicity of this will scare them.

[notpushkin]

Really crazy stuff going on here. I'll take this opportunity to recommend everybody switch to microG (if you can – i. e. if you don't use Google Pay or stuff like that).

[ganeshkrishnan1]

Scare Google? They give two shits on a popsicle about this. Threaten them with gdpr? By emailing No-reply@google.com?

[wodim]

I still see absolutely no proof about your account having been banned. Show us a screenshot at least of the message you see when you try to log in.

[Redirion]

No Proof here.

Don't feed the troll.

[TobiGr]

@Redirion That's what I though, too. Please give us evidence @haistakaavittukaikkisaatana (like the email). We might need to lock the conversation until we now this is not a fake.

[villesinisalo]

Warning: This story gives me a worrying tickle on the troll radar. Not least because OP's handle is essentially a string of random Finnish-language profanities (something like: "F*k you all, dmn it!").

[samboy]

The matter in question, if true, is a serious matter. However, without the Google account name, screenshot of the account being locked, or any other evidence besides the original poster’s claim, we can not verify the claims, and they very well could be falsified.

Just because an unverified claim supports a world view we have does not mean we should believe it credulously.

[hkzlab]

@villesinisalo Or maybe the person was so frustrated that he/she could not think of anything else when registering a github account to post this! But yes, we need proof of this before we start worrying or people start disabling their play protect feature (yep, my fault for suggesting it).

[russeg]

First I got an email from Google saying that I was using 3rd party app outside of Play Store to go around Youtube ads ...

No you did not. Google does not reveal reason for account suspensions. Even if they do, it is very vague.

Fake.

[user849281]

Google logs all Android apps start time, namespace, device etc. installed from Google Play, F-Droid etc. You can see it in Google My Activity: https://myactivity.google.com/

[graynk]

I got an email from Google saying ... said that my account has been suspended. I got locked out of my Google account

So where did you receive this email, if your account has been suspended and you got locked out?

[shr1k]

@villesinisalo Or maybe the person was so frustrated that he/she could not think of anything else when registering a github account to post this!

Except the account has been around since August 2019 and they've got some minor activity only in this repository. I'm dubious about the claim being made, since I've been using NewPipe quite liberally for the last year or so on my Play Protect-enabled stock Android device without any problems.

[TheAssassin]

Guys, this has gone too wild. Please stop posting off-topic, please leave analysis to the team. The amount of messages is making it nearly impossible to grasp what's relevant for @haistakaavittukaikkisaatana's report and what's not. Nobody cares what you think "Larry and Sergey" think (sorry whoever posted that, it sounds harsh, but it's a good example for off-topic).

We don't know for sure what's going on as we have zero evidence so far (the OP can't provide any, the reasons sound reasonable), and even if this happened to the OP, this is not the end of the world. Even the OP says it's okay.

Lessons learnt for now:

• Keep your phone as proprietary-service-provider-free as possible. You can never know what's really going on. Only free implementations (like MicroG) allow you to check the source code. I've had an Android phone for around 4 years (my first real smartphone, I was pretty late), and I've always kept it completely Google-free. It's doable!
• Don't rely too much on your Google account. Use separate mail/messaging/... providers or at least different accounts. Ideally you use privacy-friendly services for mail and messaging, and especially nothing that relies on a phone number...
• Don't share too much information with things like Google.
• For <god|not god|multiple gods|Spongebob|Superman|Jebus|whoever>'s sake, make backups! Not being able to provide evidence any more is one thing, not being able to use services any more or even data loss are more than just annoying.

Please keep the discussion within here limited to @haistakaavittukaikkisaatana's original report. We'll clean up this thread soon by hiding or deleting unrelated messages.

This is no offense and I'm sorry if this sounds a bit harsh. It's a maintainers' measure to reduce the heat, analyze based on facts and allow the devs to work efficiently. We do not try to censor you in any way, this is just not the place for this type of conversation. I can highly recommend joining our IRC channel #newpipe on Freenode to continue this discussion. That's what IRC is meant for. And I can join you speculating about what Google's founders would've thought about this situation!

@TobiGr @theScrabi let's clean up a bit.

[spinda]

@haistakaavittukaikkisaatana

I tried to restore my account by using my phone number, but I was unable to restore it due to violation of Googles terms.

Could you please post a screenshot of this message?

[gkeegan]

@spinda As OP said, they no longer have access to the account to get a screenshot.

[TheAssassin]

@gkeegan that's the point. @spinda was asking whether @haistakaavittukaikkisaatana could try again to unlock it, which we know will likely yield in an error message. @spinda wants to see a (anonymized!) screenshot.

[TheAssassin]

@Noiwex you seem to have missed the point. It's not about missing credentials for NewPipe, but Google having banned someone's account for ToS violation supposedly caused by using NewPipe, which rendered the phone unusable. The OP couldn't log into any other Google service any more. Not just NewPipe.