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I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

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Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#301

Post by [deleted] »

dragonwriter wrote: post #295
toomuchtodo wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t function as a citizen of a country without identity documents. Passport national ID cards, in my opinion, the optimal solution to the problem. Issuance can be streamlined, and cost can be absorbed for those who can’t afford it. Society requires foundations.

> You can’t function as a citizen of a country without identity documents. Sure you can. Identity documents exist more to prevent (the “wrong") people from functioning as citizens than to enable people to do so.

[deleted]

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#302

Post by dabockster »

jonsen wrote: post #102
duxup wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It turns out it didn't take computer AI "taking over" to just arbitrarily decide you're out, or wrong, or whatever with no recourse. A company of humans have decided that's ok.

No single human says this is ok. There is no human consensus this is ok. This is a form of non-human intelligence taking over.

No. This is simply lack of communication, both between computers and humans. All it takes is a couple DBs becoming unjoined in a query or someone not telling the full story for information to be lost.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#303

Post by kalleboo »

mjevans wrote: post #240
ploxiln wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also a problem with Square, and Stripe, and Paypal ... it's an unsolvable fraud/scammer problem. Basically, if there was customer support that could fix the problem, then skilled scammers can get money and control out of them. They can do it a lot better than you can get your stuff re-enabled, they know just when to say what to whom. Verizon just accepts the inefficiency, and also over-charges random customer…

I believe these issues could be solved by actually taxing corporations and providing the service they clearly so desperately need. An /actual/ (inter)national ID and Identity verification service. One where disputes about identity and authorization can be escalated somewhere that makes sense, to the jurisdictions issuing these IDs. Ideally someone should be able to go to a police station (locally for local IDs, if on…

Sweden has a personal identity number system, with an address/phone database that business can subscribe to. When you're shopping online, you can enter your ID number and it auto-populates your address. When you move, banks and others will automatically pull your new address from the database.

The banks then created a digital ID system (BankID) on top of this which is now used by everyone for real ID verification. Your physical ID is checked by a bank teller, and after that you get either a digital certificate file or a 2FA token that you can then use online to prove your identity for signing contracts (insurance etc), filing your taxes, or just logging into bank accounts etc.

Practically it works pretty well, even though I know philosophically an ID number like that would never fly in the US, and security-wise I'm sure experts have lots of objections.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#304

Post by dabockster »

walterbell wrote: post #226
notatcomputer68 wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a lawyer yada yada but it says on my dollar bill that it's legal tender for all debts, public and private.

Show up at Google HQ security gate with cash in hand and journalist in tow?

Forget the journalist, just live stream it via a YouTube account with a psuedonym first/last name. Considering how disorganized Google is, I doubt they'd take it down for a good while (if at all).

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#305

Post by techsupporter »

EduardoBautista wrote: post #181
dstaley wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even need to die for this to be an issue. Your registrar could just screw up and sell your domain to someone else. Or your registrar could have a security breach resulting in your domain being transferred. There's a myriad of ways the "own your domain" solution could fail, so it's really about which risks you're willing to take.

Yes, I have thought about this as well. One of the reasons I am in the process of moving all of my domains to Gandi is because they appear to be the only reputable domain registrar that supports U2F. I take security extremely seriously when it comes to my domains.

> One of the reasons I am in the process of moving all of my domains to Gandi is because they appear to be the only reputable domain registrar that supports U2F.

I use Gandi and am quite pleased with their security settings. Not only is my account secured with an absurdly long password, I have U2F enabled and I have enabled the IP restriction list so that authentication only succeeds when coming from one of them. They even fixed my only quibble. In the past, if I logged in with valid credentials but from an unlisted IP, the error message would say "you're coming from an IP that's not permitted." Now the message for all types of failures--bad password, wrong IP, incorrect TOTP code--is the same so an attacker can't confirm valid credentials.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#306

Post by bb611 »

holidaygoose wrote: post #219
envy2 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you use large amounts of mobile data, their plans very quickly become obnoxious (throttled after 15GB) and expensive ($80 plus taxes/fees). Compare that with T-Mobile, who offers $70 a month (including taxes/fees) with throttling at 50GB and 20GB of hotspot data for $15/mo more, or even AT&T or Verizon, and it's more expensive for less service.

I'm not sure how other people use so much data (besides video). I use whatever I want, and rarely go above 500MB ($5). I made sure to do the offline Google Maps (which I want anyways), and avoid streaming video on phone.

I use offline Google maps (I have ~10 areas since I travel frequently) but still use 600 MB/month of data from that app alone, I'm assuming traffic data.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#307

Post by burtonator »

iandanforth wrote: post #29

The lede here is somewhat burried: "From what I’ve since learned, if a card in your Google Pay is stolen, or someone uses your Payments account fraudulently, or anything happens that leads to a security flag being raised, it can lead to your Google Payments account being frozen. ... If you can’t use Google Payments, you can’t pay for Google Fi This, fundamentally, is why I can’t suggest anyone use Project Fi anymore.…

Google never became evil , it just became senile.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#308

Post by wheels »

brewdad wrote: post #217
magduf wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just went to western Europe (Germany specifically), and spend 15 Euros for phone service there. It's simple: I just bought a SIM card at a shop (O2) and put it in my Verizon phone. I got a prepaid card that had unlimited text/calls (within Germany only), and 3GB of data, which was far more than enough for my 2 weeks there. Cellular service is much cheaper in Europe than in the US, so you might as well take advantag…

My son will be traveling to Europe this summer for a school trip. He'll be spending time in 6 or 7 different countries (UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and a couple more I can't remember right now) Is there a better option than Fi for this type of trip?

Roaming charges inside of the EU were eliminated in 2017, so a single prepaid SIM (readily available for a few dollars) would do him well inside of the EU. Make sure that he has a phone that's not vendor locked. That doesn't include Switzerland, and may not include the UK by the summer, but the SIM will still work there, just with additional charges (which are usually fairly reasonable).

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#309

Post by b212 »

I'm always amazed how expensive mobile plans in the US are.

Google Fi Unlimited + 6 GB of is $80 a month. In Poland you get the same for around $6.5, prepaid.

On the other hand AT&T Prepaid $40 Monthly Plan has everything unlimited and 8 GB of data, so why would anyone use Google Fi?

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#310

Post by JimboOmega »

gameswithgo wrote: post #284
ploxiln wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also a problem with Square, and Stripe, and Paypal ... it's an unsolvable fraud/scammer problem. Basically, if there was customer support that could fix the problem, then skilled scammers can get money and control out of them. They can do it a lot better than you can get your stuff re-enabled, they know just when to say what to whom. Verizon just accepts the inefficiency, and also over-charges random customer…

>it's an unsolvable fraud/scammer problem. credit card companies and traditional banks and credit unions handle it fine. >Too many people, scams and fraud become big problems. if the solution to fraud is un-fixable account freezes, you have not actually solved anything. It is fraud itself.

It fixes one "fraud" path - where somebody seizes control of an account and holds it for ransom. Since the account itself is effectively destroyed by any flagging, it's then of no use as a hostage. An account that is flagged in any way is no longer of any use at all, no point to taking them over.

Of course, a scammer could threaten to destroy your accounts, and can do so very easily and credibly... So that's not exactly a huge improvement.

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