Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Gmail account security

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 807 posts

Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security

#221

Post by jeroenhd »

amelius wrote: post #156
supermatou wrote: post #91

Yep, and it was even more aggravating. > have three gmail accounts > primary, name.surname@gmail.com > secondary, name.surname.purchases@gmail.com > tertiary, name.surname.work@gmail.com > secondary and tertiary have primary as a recovery address > log in/out once a week in 2nd and 3rd > last August, try to log into name.surname.work > "Password is incorrect" > WTH?! of course it's correct. > try several times, Googl…

Perhaps you're not supposed to have more than 1 gmail account, and the assumptions in their code cannot deal with more than 1 account per user, or worse, they actively try to discourage it.

I've been using multiple accounts for years, almost every part of the UI has the ability to switch between accounts. Youtube even still has the old Youtube account available from before the Google+ era, and switching to it is painless.

There could be many useful and useless reasons for why accounts get flagged, but using multiple accounts isn't one in my experience.

Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security

#222

Post by zozbot234 »

neogodless wrote: post #218

My 87 year old grandma's computer wouldn't boot. We set her up on a new laptop. But we couldn't remember her Gmail password. We never recovered her account, including any photos backed up to Google Photos.

You should be able to image her hard disk, and probably boot it up in a VM. Windows activation might complain in that case, but her data will be there.

Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security

#223

Post by evandale »

zozbot234 wrote: post #164
pronlover723 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, google has customer service if you're paying them. I pay $6 a month for gsuite. I've contacted customer service 3 times. Got them instantly.

They're supposed to have paid customer service for non-business users too if you pay for Google One, no idea how effective that is.

I was wondering that as well because I have Google One. When I go to the support page it claims 24/7 support for phone and chat in 2-3 minutes and e-mail support within 24 hours.

Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security

#224

Post by srjilarious »

josephg wrote: post #112
PaulHoule wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Google’s nonexistent customer service I’d be afraid of being locked out for any arbitrary reason and having no recourse no matter what recovery procedures I prepared for. Contrast that to my bank where I can go to the branch, show ID, and get problems logging in resolved.

A plug from a very satisfied customer: I pay $5/month for Fastmail. I've emailed support before and reached a human within hours. They helped me with my problem, because it was their job and I'm paying them to do it. Email is too important to rely on a free service which has a history of shutting people out, at any time, for any reason.

Just wanted to +1 this. I've been a happy customer of Fastmail since ~2013, never had a single issue, great service

Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security

#225

Post by oxapentane »

prirun wrote: post #197
zenexer wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 2FA and a recovery email on my Gmail account, yet I have run into this issue. If Google thinks something is suspicious, it will decline your 2FA codes and recovery attempts—it will just tell you that you entered the wrong code. Only after you finally get back in do you find an email in your inbox explaining that the correct code was entered, but Google blocked it because it was suspicious. This happens to me f…

I think we need to quit calling it AI, and instead call it AS: Actual Stupidity

Some time ago I used to run a userscript which replaced all occurrences of "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" with "Artificial Idiocy". Added some charm to buzzword-heavy press releases :D.

Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security

#226

Post by Havoc »

hotpotamus wrote: post #181
voisin wrote: post #126

Nearly every interaction I have had with Google in the last two years makes me think the company has devolved into warring factions that cannot communicate let alone coordinate for the betterment of their users. Do they not eat their own cooking, or how do they manage to make everything so dysfunctional?

Perhaps remote work doesn't lend itself to a well coordinated company?

Google has lost its way long before the pandemic

Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security

#227

Post by jeroenhd »

foxfluff wrote: post #184
fn-mote wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want real identity security, reg your own domain, and move it with you. I'm pretty confident that Gmail is more secure than the domain registrar if you're really attacked. At least do your research carefully on this one. Domains do get stolen. As always, consider your own threat model. But if you're a civilian? Wow, just hope you can walk away from the lockout.

I am my own domain registrar.

The $3500 ICANN registration fee and the accompanying $4000 yearly accreditation fee hardly make running your own personal registrar worth it, and that doesn't even cover the necessary legal fees and paperwork you need to fill out to become a proper registrar.

The entire process also seems rather lengthy to me if all you want is set up secure email: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/accreditation-2012-02-...

Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security

#228

Post by kart23 »

akvadrako wrote: post #144
kart23 wrote: post #99

there needs to be some kind of law or regulation around this right? email has become as, if not more important as regular mail, and the government should be protecting access to it. try sending it to your senator and local representative. I think the FTC would also be interested in this. if google won’t even give you support for the issue, that should really be addressed by the government imo.

There is not need for a law. Just don't use google.

If someone wants to stop using gmail, it's horribly inconvenient to move to another service. You need to update your email with all your other accounts, which for most people is pretty much unfeasible. You can't take your @gmail.com address, which means switching email providers is extremely difficult. There should really be some consumer protection laws around email.

Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security

#229

Post by djbusby »

SMAAART wrote: post #220
alerighi wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My solution is, buy your own domain. It's cheap and it will cost you only 20$ a year or something like that. I'm not saying run your own email service (I do, but I recognize that it's complex and not worth for most people), but use a public email service (like also GMail) with your own domain. That way at least if you no longer can access your account, or you get banned, or whatever, you don't loose your address (sin…

Quoted post unavailable.

Not FUD, putting your eggs in the Google basket "considered harmful" - unless you pay (Gmail for your domain). I had a similar lockout but on my paid account, got fixed in about 48h. It's happened to like 10 other folk I know over the last 2-3 years

Re: Ask HN: Gmail account security

#230

Post by pkulak »

It’s this kind of thing that has had me moving most everything off Google over the last 6 months. It’s just not safe for me to have 20 years of photos, emails and documents in the hands of a company that may cut me loose at any moment. After decades of slowly moving my life to “the cloud”, I bought a Synology nas, and now all my stuff lives in my own house (though backed up externally, of course).
Post reply on HN