The article didn't say anything about the free or paid GDrive accounts. If it is a free account, then that is up for debate. If it impacts the paid consumers, they paid for the service and it is their data.
What rights do the contracts that a paid customer signs with Google say they have over the data?
From what I see in the free terms of service: "You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours." which is neat.
You have the rights to your data, but there doesn't seem to be any stated obligation for Google to keep that data or make it accessible to you.
On a paid account, clearly that's part of the contracted service being provided. There is absolutely an obligation to provide the service you took payment for.
But no, in general in our society, gratis products aren't required to carry warranties, for obvious reasons (no one would provide them if so).
yeah, unless there is a statement sort of like "We reserve the right to terminate accounts in the case of violation of terms of service as determined by our automated systems"
in which case you would need to go to court and get a determination that clearly that is wrong and they can't do that, in general in American society that's how things work.