This is a public service announcement to never ever use Oracle

Tobias Hellgren

@ErikUden What the hell? Not even an explanation? I mean, I've worked with Oracle for a couple of clients before and know that they are utterly incompetent as a company but this is the worst treatment I've ever heard of. I'm so sorry!

Erik Uden 🍑

The tech person at Oracle at least lets me know that they'd feel similarly betrayed and dislike this handling of user data too 🥲

Erik Uden 🍑

Don't worry: I have backups of all of this. It's just kafkaesque what is happening here.

Erik Uden 🍑

Interestingly, two days before Oracle deleted my account and all servers associated with it, I publicly criticized Oracle's CEO in a viral post for promising dystopian AI surveillance technology to his investors.

Erik Uden 🍑 (@[email protected])

Day three of Trump's term and the largest push for surveillance capitalism yet has been made: **Project Stargate** will be a $500.000.000.000 (*500 billion USD*) data center used for running a multitude of AIs with the purpose of spying on you. Larry Ellison, the world's second richest man and CEO of Oracle, one of the main partners of Stargate, said: > “Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we're constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on [...]. We're using A.I. to monitor the video.” — Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle on how the company's A.I. systems will be used for in the future [[Source: Business Insider](https://archive.ph/2Ck66)] This is who is in power now. This is the vision they have.

MastodonDE (mastodon.de)

What a weird coincidence.

Dolls Against Gravity

@ErikUden oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Kind of a wtf moment, what is that even supposed to mean?

Dźwiedziu

@ErikUden
Oh. Teh. Lulz.

Edit: found the GDPR thread below.

Also, isn't GDPR applicable here? (I had also a account deleted with the reason of “we can't tell you” (and it happened while I was asking for help with the registration) and the help desk ignored my questions for data. But I had other problems and did not get very far.)

Ch M[ae][iy]e?r 🖤🤍

@ErikUden oh. I was already wondering whether you had annoyed NSA, Trump or someone of his friends. ...

Erik Uden 🍑

@dzwiedziu You're absolutely right. I've sent a GDPR request immediately. The EU stands against kafkaesque practices.

Erik Uden 🍑

@chbmeyer a post I recently made was reposted and only through a friend of mine seeing it I realized it had 3.8 million views on Reddit. To this day I'm being sent Instagram posts by other accounts reposting that daily through friends or because these accounts tag me.

It's easy (and even appreciated by me) when my posts leave this platform. I don't think I've angered anyone, I'm way too irrelevant. However, when arbitration is the norm, a small act like this can easily be pushed under the rug.

I guess the problem rather is that it may as well be true. Since we're given no explanation, or rather a refusal to explain what happened here by Oracle, we must come up with what sounds like a conspiracy.

Do I believe there's really a connection here? 99.9% sure there isn't. Is it possible for any AI to scan the internet for criticics and make their life harder? Sure is. Is it most likely Oracle's arbitrary practices? Yeah.

This could've happened to anyone, a critic, fan, or someone who's indifferent to Oracle. That's almost worse than it only happening to someone critical of their CEO.

indyradio

@thanius @ErikUden
I don't think they're incompetent.

Erik Uden 🍑

@ilookloud I paid them money. I still do. I also won't make any efforts to stop them from taking my money (additionally, I currently can't even do that, since I can't login to my account as it was deleted, although I'm seeing a charge for the next month).

So... I don't know what this is supposed to mean. It seems as if my account was deleted, but my server wasn't. I'm still paying for the server, but I will never be allowed to create an account to access that server.

Tobias Hellgren

@indyradio Hyperbole of course but not far from.

@ErikUden

Scott Williams 🐧

@ErikUden Oracle are truly the Vogons of the tech world.

Erik Uden 🍑

Moving these servers, despite having no long term impact like data loss, will have some financial impact. Don't feel forced to, your vocal support about this issue was more than enough to turn my evening from a bad to a wonderful one, however if you have the financial resources I'd be happy about a little support:

Erik Uden 🍑 (@[email protected])

It's the beginning of the month again and that means new bills for the servers (*which we now have to partially move due to Oracle*)! We have [various expenses](https://mastodon.de/@MastodonDE/110811119053549314) and moderation work unfortunately takes up a lot of time, which is why we would be very happy about a little support! :boost_requested: - :liberapay: [LiberaPay](https://liberapay.com/MastodonDE) - :paypal: [PayPal](https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=7CZ4CXZ2L32R8) - :kofi: [Ko-Fi](https://ko-fi.com/MastodonDE) - :patreon: [Patreon](https://patreon.com/MastodonDE) Our services will always remain free, but support so that the whole thing can run in the long term and finance itself is welcome :blobcatmeltlove: For a [longer explanation of the costs and other donation options, look here](https://mastodon.de/@MastodonDE/110811119053549314)!

MastodonDE (mastodon.de)

Where will this money go to ;)?

Nick 🇨🇦 V13.9XXA Candidate

@ErikUden
Holy Cr@p.
The thread is scary.
I hope Larry's sailboats sink.

maybeanerd

@ErikUden hetzner all the way!

Laxystem

@ErikUden @chbmeyer there are millions of Oracle users

The chance it happened to you after posting about oracle, without a massive amount of accidentally deleted accounts, is very small.

Erik Uden 🍑

This morning, on February 2nd 2025 at 06:58 (GMT+1) I've received an E-Mail by Oracle stating “Your Oracle Cloud account has been reactivated.”

I couldn't believe my eyes and didn't really understand how to respond. At the point in time where I received this E-mail, my post regarding Oracle's mistreatment has already gathered thousands of shares and was also discussed heavily on Hacker News among other platforms.

My many pleas and requests from the past week didn't do anything. My GDPR request didn't do anything so far. But within a few hours of public complaints and so many people telling me to take this to court... I guess this was simply the easiest way.

I still don't fully understand the E-Mail I've gotten. It talks about an order about universal credits that occurred at 5:20 AM, where I've been cold asleep. When I login to Oracle Cloud, no such credits exist. Additionally, they don't show up when I look into the “Cost and Usage Reports” under my account management. Even more interesting are the dozens of files showing an account and server activity, with the calculated cost of it all, for a time period where my account was supposedly irreversibly deleted.

I'll share more interesting findings soon. I am honestly just shocked about this development. I would've expected many things except for a 180.

Erik Uden 🍑

How are there Cost and Usage Reports for a time period where my account didn't exist?

Erik Uden 🍑

I wish my main and inspiring takeaway here would be that we can fight them and win.

However, I was in no control here. The fact this resonated with a lot of people causing an internet wide uproar was nice, but Oracle's legal time could've decided to not care.

Are they taking the wind out of our sails by reinstating my account? Is this their way of admitting and undoing an honest mistake? Would this have happened if I never complained publicly about it, or was my private GDPR request what did the magic here?

I cannot tell you. All I can say is that your account and all your data still exists on Oracle's servers even over a week after your account has been “irreversibly” wiped. Keep that in mind the next time support tells you there's nothing they can do.