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docs, drive and photos are pretty packed for me at least

I was in that same boat, which is why I decided to migrate off gmail and move to a paid provider. One day I just woke up an realized I had to much important shit tied to my email to not be a customer. Paid services to replace google are surprisingly affordable. And best yet, if there is ever an issue, there is also a number I can call. Totally recommend migrating away.

«there is also a number I can call»

Unfortunately that's a number a hacker can call to social engineer the employee and steal your account. Same method as in SIM swapping attacks.

Assuming reasonable levels of competence on the part of the service, which scenario seems more likely for the average user:

1.) Some unexpected glitch occurs (could be the user's fault or could be the company's), and the user's ability to access the service is temporarily interrupted until a human is able to investigate and resolve the problem.

2.) The user is specifically targeted by a malicious actor performing SIM swap and/or social engineering attack.

I'm not really a gambler, but if I'm forced to guess, I'd say #1.

EDIT: clarify initial assumptions

Reply on news.ycombinator.com