The crux of the problem is that gmail is, for billions of people, both their primary email account, which is superbly central to many things that we do in 2022, and the way in which we get authenticated and essentially "manage" our online identity.
These two things would ideally stay separate. Of course, an expert in Computer Science would certainly have his/her own tld domain with email, and maybe use gmail only for proper email work, right?
Well... Not so sure about that. I'm a tech person myself, and my gmail is my online identity. I would suffer the same fate if I were to go through the same issue as OP's mother.
Perhaps there's space here for a startup, or a service, that allows you to fix this. Something that would make regulatory bodies not too unhappy about it.
E-mail as online identity is both convenient and a huge source of risk (if Google's automated system goes wrong).
I wonder if Google could offer real customer support. I know offering support goes against everything Google stands for, but I'm sure many people would be willing to pay non-trivial amounts of money to get actual support from Google.
So if you unfortunately get locked out of your google account, you could pay for support that can actually resolve your issue.
(I realize paying to fix your problem may rub some people the wrong way. However, I would rather pay for a support ticket than be locked out of my account forever.)
This sounds like it would give rise to perverse incentives. If this were the case, Google would now be incentivized to cause problems (e.g. lock you out for "suspicious behavior") so that you'll then pay to get it "fixed".
These two things would ideally stay separate. Of course, an expert in Computer Science would certainly have his/her own tld domain with email, and maybe use gmail only for proper email work, right?
Well... Not so sure about that. I'm a tech person myself, and my gmail is my online identity. I would suffer the same fate if I were to go through the same issue as OP's mother.
Perhaps there's space here for a startup, or a service, that allows you to fix this. Something that would make regulatory bodies not too unhappy about it.