I always find the admin panel hugely restrictive. It's missing basic features like "just let me impersonate this user now".

The number of times our support staff have to walk someone through the process of doing something when the ability to impersonate a user would just let them do it far quicker.

> Nobody deserves even a modicum of privacy. Let's make it 0 friction to inspect what they're doing at all times.

Features cut both ways. Am I respectful of my work equipment? Yes. Would it be net good for my boss to automatically get a report of everything on my screen everyday, not particularly. So could we not have the largest platforms make it even easier than it already is to be creepy AF?

Every system I design has this "impersonation" feature, and none of them have any capability for surveilling usage. It's just a way for me to see what my customers are seeing. Helps me understand their problems, bugs in my system, etc.

I have direct access to all the prod databases and lots of tools for inspection/auditing. This isn't for that. It's for helping people by seeing/using the system through their eyes.

It ideally doesn't need to be a privacy-invading thing, but rather a way for administrators troubleshoot issues a bit easier without having to get on a screensharing call. I think maybe what makes it difficult is that Gmail might be used as the key to authenticate into other accounts (like for shadow IT).

And in the ideal case, even this action that a Google Workspace administrator logged in as someone else would be automatically written into an audit trail.

It's funny how many assume impersonation is all about privacy, when it's really about empathy: letting you see the situation through the eyes of the person you're trying to help, instead of just responding I don't have that problem in my setup or when using a god account.

Impersonation is not what you seem to think it is.

I think a minimum of being able to shut down an account when you fire someone and delete the data is worth having manageability, but small businesses will do anything, even additional staff administrative overhead, to avoid paying a subscription.

You can't both realize that getting people to pay you even a tiny but recurring subscription is how you get a fat and easy life, and at the same time fail to realize that paying anyone else even a tiny but recurring subscription is how you give someone else a fat and easy life at the expense of your own.

The majority of small businesses aren’t subscription based services. I was assuming we were talking about companies like your local coffee shop.

Same companies are also mortally offended by the very idea of having to pay salaries and (gasp!) taxes; asking them to also pay for tools feels like adding an insult to injury!