Google Responds to Reports of Unexpected Account Sign-Outs

Saturday February 25, 2017 2:23 AM PST by Tim Hardwick
Google has responded to multiple reports of users being unexpectedly logged out of their Google accounts, in order to assuage fears that the logouts were security related.

The unexpected sign-outs began on Thursday night and continued through Friday, affecting multiple services including Gmail, Chromecast, YouTube, and Google Play.
During routine maintenance, a number of users were signed-out from their Google accounts. This may have resulted in you being signed out of your account or seeing a notification about "A change in your Google account" or "Account Action Required".

We hear your concerns that this appeared to potentially be phishing or another type of security issue. We can assure you that the security of your account was never in danger as a result of this issue.
Google said the issue with its Google Accounts engine also caused some Google Wifi and OnHub devices to automatically revert to factory settings. "Unfortunately, these devices need to be set up again," said Google. "We'd like to share our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience." Instructions on re-setting the Wi-Fi devices can be found here.


The reports initially caused some concern among users, coming in just hours after it was revealed that content delivery network CloudFare had been informed by Google of a bug that leaked memory, which could potentially contain private information cached by search engines.

Cloudflare worked with the affected search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and Bing, to erase any remnants of the sensitive data from their caches, and the bug has since been patched.

Tag: Google
69 comments


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freediverx
22 months ago

Because Apple doesnt make poor design choices also. Talking about trust? *cough* Icloud celebrity hack.


1) Apple's track record on security (and especially privacy) is far better than Google's or Facebook's.

2) Stop repeating that old tripe. Apple's services have never been hacked. The incident you're alluding to involved celebrities having their weak passwords compromised on other services through social engineering, after which the attackers were able to gain access to their Apple accounts because they foolishly used the same password everywhere.

While Apple subsequently strengthened security for their password reset system in one particular area, that weakness was not exploited during the celebrity hack.
Rating: 31 Votes
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Robert.Walter
22 months ago
Im no fan of Google, but their transparency here is to be commended.

I wish Apple would take a note; they never bothered to come clean on their recently discovered (and quickly corrected) excessive retention of customer iCloud sync data.
Rating: 19 Votes
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kytiger
22 months ago
And this is why I won't be buying Google Wifi. Really poor design that it reverts to factory defaults on something like this.

Not to mention the trust issues with Google.
Rating: 18 Votes
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thisisnotmyname
22 months ago

Really, I must have missed Apple's worldwide zero day exploits work the Google does. Apple covers themselves, Google's testing is far more extensive just Apple it, ahh I mean Google it ;) Compare Apple Store apps privacy and collection description vs Google play. Night and day difference, plus updates won't install if there is a change in what the app can collect until you approve it. Apple just says "trust us"


Are you trying to make that case that Google is a better steward in collection and use of private data than Apple? These must be "alternate facts" by obfuscating through references to descriptions of what third parties do rather than face the way in which Google and Apple commoditize their users data (as in Google's primary revenue stream and Apple going out of their way to stop it).
Rating: 6 Votes
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PhillyGuy72
22 months ago
Yeah I had to sign in again with no problem, I didn't get a "A change in your Google account" or "Account Action Required" notification...but seeing the explanation I'm totally fine with this.

I get notifications to 2 other non-Gmail accounts if I make any changes, log in from another computer, or a suspicious log in is attempted.
Rating: 6 Votes
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givemeanapple
22 months ago

And this is why I won't be buying Google Wifi. Really poor design that it reverts to factory defaults on something like this.

Not to mention the trust issues with Google.

Because Apple doesnt make poor design choices also. Talking about trust? *cough* Icloud celebrity hack.
Rating: 5 Votes
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lazyrighteye
22 months ago
"Rest easy..."

In my experience, when someone has to tell you to trust them, you're already F'd.
Rating: 4 Votes
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emm386
22 months ago

Apple's track record on security (and especially privacy) is far better than Google's or Facebook's.

Apple's track record on security is secrecy and cover-ups. Transparency is the very least prerequisite if you have a serious interest in security.

Personally, I wouldn't trust a statement from Google's marketing and media relations.

I wouldn't trust ANY statement from any marketing or PR department. Especially Apple's, who has no interest whatsoever in being transparent about security issues.
Rating: 4 Votes
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mattopotamus
22 months ago
Some of you guys must be really important people, or are insanely paranoid about google knowing your search history.
Rating: 3 Votes
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nickcliborne
22 months ago

Really, I must have missed Apple's worldwide zero day exploits work the Google does. Apple covers themselves, Google's testing is far more extensive just Apple it, ahh I mean Google it ;) Compare Apple Store apps privacy and collection description vs Google play. Night and day difference, plus updates won't install if there is a change in what the app can collect until you approve it. Apple just says "trust us"


They're reporting bugs in other products to help pass blame when their insecure OS is in the spotlight. Google isn't a good guy by any stretch of the imagination.
Rating: 3 Votes
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