This isn't true though. Unless you have some egregious terms of service violation, your account will only lose access to Google+. For example, not using your real name could get you banned from G+, but the rest of your Google account will still be usable and accessible.

Anecdotal, but I'm put in mind of one new user's experience where they accidentally "sent/addressed" (keep in mind, I have no direct experience with Plus) a message/post to all of their circle contacts or somesuch. IIRC, the message basically just said "Hey, I'm on Plus now". I don't recall whether the broad addressing was mistakenly made or the implications of the broad addressing not understood. Either way, that one message was allegedly enough to get the person's Google account suspended.

Um, no thanks.

P.S. I concede that the original article is specifically about the "+1" feature. However, I -- perhaps mistakenly -- view this all as part of Google Plus.

Honestly, that story sounds really vague and I can't see _anything_ in it that would even be remotely responsible for an account suspension. What do you think they got in trouble for? Sending a message to too many people? That certainly isn't a bannable offense, especially since there is a public posting option.

As I recall, it was a specific, first-hand account. And the author was initially as puzzled as you are. What happened? Why?

It's one of several stories/anecdotes I've run across. Unfortunately, I haven't kept a list of links to those.

En masse, they've caused me enough concern to not "push the button". In good part, if something does go amiss, you're pretty well stuck, unless you have a big enough megaphone to garner sufficient publicity and/or enough of the "right" connections to garner some love from fellow geeks.

Maybe I and others are being gamed by opposing forces. I'm not at a point where I care to find out the hard way whether that's the case.