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Tell HN: Lost then regained access to Google account, with correct credentials

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Re: Tell HN: Lost then regained access to Google account, with correct credentials

#111

Post by danaris »

ajross wrote: post #102
ttybird wrote: post #86

I hate this. If I know the password I should be able to log in to my account no matter what (unless if I have 2fa enabled). Sadly companies like Google and MS do not like this idea, they also often use the excuse that they can't verify you in order to mine your phone number. "Edit: Account recovered. I used chromium to login (which I never do) and then back to Firefox" How can google keep getting away with this? MS g…

The request for a phone number is precisely a 2FA mechanism, and that's how it's being used. I don't understand what the bad faith you're assuming on Google's part is. What do they want that phone number for otherwise?

If they're asking for a phone number after they've already decided you're not trusted enough with just your password, that is not 2FA.

If you're not trusted, then any phone number you give shouldn't be trusted, either.

If you're trusted enough to be let in when you give a phone number, then you should be trusted enough to be let in without it, and then asked for a phone number, if one is really needed for 2FA.

Re: Tell HN: Lost then regained access to Google account, with correct credentials

#112

Post by mc_woods »

kevincox wrote: post #104
junon wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google denying me access to YouTube videos asking me to verify my age by giving them either my passport or my credit card should be illegal as well. Then they expanded it to the app store - some apps, even ones that don't seem to need to be age restricted - now require I verify my age in the same way. I just give them the middle finger and manually install the APKs for those apps. Unfortunately, no way to get around…

> Google denying me access to YouTube videos asking me to verify my age by giving them either my passport or my credit card should be illegal as well. Wasn't this added because of some EU law? It seems that YouTube's interpretation was that asking this is the opposite of illegal, actually legally required.

UK prawn laws? - proposed and then dropped?

Re: Tell HN: Lost then regained access to Google account, with correct credentials

#113

Post by danaris »

dt3ft wrote: post #50

This story keeps coming up. When you pay for email, you get a customer status. This entails a SLA and a bunch of other rights, which you most likely never get from a free service provider. I hope if those reading these comments still use free email service instead of hosting their own (or paying for it), strongly consider making the switch.

So unless you're rich enough to be able to pay for premium status, you don't deserve a reliable email address—something that is absolutely required to be able to operate in the modern world?

Re: Tell HN: Lost then regained access to Google account, with correct credentials

#116

Post by dahfizz »

probably_wrong wrote: post #110
dahfizz wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did they ever verify the you had the old password / recovery email like you offered? It seems strange to me that they reset an account password because they got many letters asking them to.

All e-mail communications were sent through the same address I gave as recovery address, so they didn't have to ask. It is possible that one of their e-mails was sent to my recovery address instead of my personal address, but since they are the same account I wouldn't know.

Ah, that makes sense. I'm glad it worked out for you!

Re: Tell HN: Lost then regained access to Google account, with correct credentials

#117

Post by btrettel »

chrisan wrote: post #98
siddharthgoel88 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel signing up for a new paid/self-hosted email becomes tricky when a person has used an email for most of his life. All the online-services, grad school, office-alum, etc. use the old email. And now when you switch to a new one then it becomes hard I feel. Any suggestions?

Email forwarding. For anyone you communicated with in the last year (or x months) you can send them an email to update your contact if you wish. I've not found an online service you can't switch emails with.

> I've not found an online service you can't switch emails with.

I've probably switched email addresses on 200+ websites now, and there were a handful that don't seem to allow switching email addresses back when I made the switch. The situation could have improved since then, but you're basically right, very few don't allow one to change their email address.

Re: Tell HN: Lost then regained access to Google account, with correct credentials

#118

Post by hk__2 »

roenxi wrote: post #49
hk__2 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you value your digital history, host your mail and file at a party where you pay for the service - that makes you a customer not a product And then the hosting company has a fire in their datacenter and there’s someone on HN saying it’s still your fault because you needed to do backups as well. And then you have a backup issue and there’s someone on HN saying it’s still your fault for some other reason. https://…

You appear to be suggesting that because other HN comments (arguing different things, no less!) exist that zevv is wrong. That isn't a very powerful argument. I have some sympathy for both sides of the debate, but fact is that if your emails are important to you, using a free service from a rather unreliable company like Google is the lazy choice. One of the main reasons it is free is because you get no support if so…

> One of the main reasons it is free is because you get no support if something goes wrong.

No, it’s the opposite: you get no support because there are too many people using it because it’s free. In theory paying for a service should get you better support, but in practice there are thousands of counter-examples.

Re: Tell HN: Lost then regained access to Google account, with correct credentials

#119

Post by ycuser2 »

kevincox wrote: post #104
junon wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google denying me access to YouTube videos asking me to verify my age by giving them either my passport or my credit card should be illegal as well. Then they expanded it to the app store - some apps, even ones that don't seem to need to be age restricted - now require I verify my age in the same way. I just give them the middle finger and manually install the APKs for those apps. Unfortunately, no way to get around…

> Google denying me access to YouTube videos asking me to verify my age by giving them either my passport or my credit card should be illegal as well. Wasn't this added because of some EU law? It seems that YouTube's interpretation was that asking this is the opposite of illegal, actually legally required.

The irony is that I have to verify my age on YouTube, but I heard that people don't need this on any porn site for example.

Re: Tell HN: Lost then regained access to Google account, with correct credentials

#120

Post by AnonC »

jacquesm wrote: post #94
daitangio wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched to my hosted email, it is not so difficult to manage, and I feel very free. Also I have created accounts for my children, my wife with very little costs. The magic? This very well supported project: https://github.com/docker-mailserver/docker-mailserver

Typically solutions like that will work for a few months or years and then you are in much bigger trouble than before. Highly annoying. This is because just like every other server you will need to keep it up to date, you are going to have to deal with being falsely labelled as a spammer, you will have people attempting to abuse your server and so on. I'm still doing this but the overhead is such that I'm tempted to…

To add to those points, one day you (the person with self-hosted email) would die and your family will be left without emails sometime soon and no way to get their widely used addresses back. Choosing a medium or large third party provider means you just need to document “go to and manage payments to pay to retain your address; this is how you contact customer support in case something isn’t working”.
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