It's a constant fear, and there's no way to avoid using these companies. I'm currently dealing with a bakery business that was suddenly suspended from Google Maps. This is a big deal because it's the main way, by far, that people find us.

7 days ago, boom. Your account has been suspended for not following the business guidelines. The only thing I've updated recently was our hours. It's been listed without problems for about two years.

Of course they don't tell you what the issue is. They just tell you to fix it and then beg them to reinstate you. It takes up to two weeks apparently (7 days so far). And if they decide not to, the only thing you can do is delete the listing, and two years worth of hard earned reviews go up in smoke.

A few days ago one of our staff told me a Korean tourist came in the day before we were suspended and accused us of being fake. I don't know exactly what happened but due to the tourist's limited English nobody could persuade them we were the real location. Or maybe they were looking for somewhere else entirely? Who knows. Apparently they left a negative review, which I can't see while the account is suspended. Probably they reported the location as fake.

So that's it. Two years, over 100 positive reviews sitting at 4.9 stars. Gone because of one confused tourist. Or maybe because I updated the hours. Or maybe an automatic spam check didn't like us.

I sincerely hope that the next round of EU laws tackles this instead of privacy. It's just as big an issue, especially if you're running a small business.