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Impossible or incredibly hard? Well impossible right?

Because OP did not get back their account.

Once your account is locked it is impossible to get it back, the bits that make up your account are instantly wiped right? Some L9 at google waves a magic wand and it's gone.

No one who ever got wrongly locked out of a Google account has ever gotten it back, so it's impossible right?

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And yes, hundreds out of billions is acceptable collateral damage.

In case you didn't know, all systems are subject to similar tradeoffs, even ones of life and death. Planes aren't just designed with safety in mind, trade offs are made knowing they could cost lives because no one could afford to travel on a plane that was twice as safe for 10 times the cost.

The water you drink is treated knowing that X incidences of illness and death occur for Y amount of contaminates because no one can afford water that's significantly more expensive for marginal benefit.

Fraud is the same. You have to accept hundred out of a billion chances of going wrong because no one will pay not just a monetary cost, but a convenience cost. Most people won't be happy if Apple requires ID to make an iCloud account for example...



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