Hello Community Members,
We have noticed an increase in posts regarding Google Cloud/Firebase project suspensions (often due to suspected key misuse or account hijacking). We understand that these suspensions can lead to severe production outages, and waiting for an appeal to be processed—sometimes for up to 3 weeks—can be incredibly stressful for your business and customers.
To help you get your project reinstated as smoothly and quickly as possible, we have compiled a list of Best Practices when working with the appeals team:
1. Submit a Comprehensive Initial Appeal
Incomplete appeals often require manual review or trigger automated emails asking for more information, which can significantly delay your reinstatement. To avoid this, ensure your very first appeal contains all necessary data.
Based on our official Respond to Abuse and Misuse documentation, your appeal must contain:
- What caused the issue?
- The exact steps you have taken to resolve the issue (e.g., removing exposed credentials, rotating keys, moving secrets to Secret Manager, restricting API access).
- Whether the behavior was intentional.
- Your billing account ID.
- Whether your project was compromised.
2. Never Submit Multiple Appeals
We strongly recommend avoiding the submission of multiple appeals for the same Case ID. Submitting duplicate appeals can reset your position in the review queue and lead to even longer delays in the resolution process.
3. Use the Correct Channels for Status Updates
Community moderators and standard support teams do not have direct visibility into Trust & Safety or compliance appeal statuses. To follow up properly, use the following methods depending on your access:
- If you have Google Cloud Console access: The standard procedure is to use the link provided in your initial confirmation email to access the Appeals page within the Google Cloud Console. Do not reply directly to the confirmation email.
- If you are locked out of the Console: If your suspended status prevents console access, please use the Google Cloud Support contact form. When submitting this form, you must explicitly include the following details:
- Why your Google Cloud project was suspended.
- The date you originally submitted the appeal.
- A statement clarifying that you are unable to access the console.
- A direct request for an update on your appeal status.
- Your Project ID and any other relevant context.
Helpful Documentation & Links
- Responding to Abuse and Misuse: https://docs.cloud.google.com/docs/security/respond-to-abuse-misuse
- Google Cloud Policy Violation FAQ: https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/7002354
We know that waiting is difficult, especially during an outage. Following these steps ensures the compliance team has exactly what they need to process your appeal as efficiently as possible.
