>I feel no reason short of a mandate from a judge is so good to allow Google (edit: or any other tech company, really) to completely lock someone out of their personal data.
Yes. It's a travesty. And those who work at those tech companies should be ashamed to be associated with such behavior.
That said, if your data isn't hosted (even if just as a backup) on your hardware, it isn't your data.
If someone else is hosting your data then it doesn't belong to you, unless you have a strong copyright claim, and the money to pay lawyers to litigate such a claim.
Yes. It's a travesty. And those who work at those tech companies should be ashamed to be associated with such behavior.
That said, if your data isn't hosted (even if just as a backup) on your hardware, it isn't your data.
If someone else is hosting your data then it doesn't belong to you, unless you have a strong copyright claim, and the money to pay lawyers to litigate such a claim.