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Ask HN: Google Safebrowsing has no way to appeal?

by Simplestas on 5/14/24, 2:34 PM with 11 comments

My Windows software has been around for 12+ years.

Then one day Google came and deemed software as malware or unwanted software and marked binaries and websites as dangerous.

This does not make sense because it's 100% clean on VirusTotal and has consistently good standing and ratings.

There seems no way to appeal the ban. Security review in Google Console does not get read by human, it just schedules automated website rescan - doesn't even say which non-hosted links are 'malicious' as a result. Feedback does not get read in a week too.

Eh, so I talked to Google One support and some Google contacts I managed to find. They say there seems no internal appeal form or contact email for team which can actually fix this? Automated ban may have been issued due to cracked software distributed elsewhere which may connect to original domain?

I'm totally stumbled. What can one even do with a clusterfuck like this?

  • by hexandcube on 5/14/24, 3:16 PM

    Google doesn't have any actual support. I had an issue with my Google account where I was flagged as a minor by Google's automated systems, even tough my age was verified with an ID. I spent months trying to get in touch with someone who could do anything. Everyone just kept sending me completely irrelevant copy-pasted troubleshooting instructions. I also had similar issues with other Google products, that could only be resolved on their end, and there was nothing I could do. Google just doesn't care.

    And it's not just Google, Microsoft is currently blocking downloads from one of my websites in Edge. I tried appealing multiple times, and nothing.

    We need laws that require companies to provide actual, meaningful support.

  • by Simplestas on 5/14/24, 6:04 PM

    Websites are https://www.startallback.com/ and https://www.startisback.com

    Banned download for example is https://www.startallback.com/download.php which you can check is 100% legit (as of 05/14 at least) https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/5040bb8ed046c5f9e3880458...

    There are no 'unwanted software' criteria applicable too, and if there were, nobody told me anyway

  • by KomoD on 5/14/24, 3:08 PM

    > What can one even do with a clusterfuck like this?

    Distribute it on another domain if it's because of "Automated ban may have been issued due to cracked software distributed elsewhere which may connect to original domain?"?

  • by stop50 on 5/14/24, 2:38 PM

    Sueing?