111–120 of 350 posts
If anyone got afraid and wants to disable 2fa, go to https://myaccount.google.com/security
The trick isn't to disable 2FA. It's to add a bunch of 2FA methods that don't rely on your cell phone: authenticator app, yubi keys, backup codes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the US if you are under 135 percent of the Federal Poverty Level you qualify for a free Mobile Phone with internet service. I am surprised Canada does not have a program like that
That program is not available in every State iirc
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There was a post a while back around poor and homeless people encountering exactly this problem on a regular basis. Lots of people in the comments were incredibly dismissive and sometimes actively malign about it. Even worse than that, they're often connecting from public IPs that are "suspicious" which causes automated systems to treat them more harshly. In Canada it's gotten to the point where you need an interne…
but big tech discriminates against anything that's not a personal computing device. To be precise, anything that's not a "personal" computing device running the latest spyware-filled locked-down software and a browser that can be anything as long as it's the three that Google implicitly "approve". government, banking, etc.. Banking is private-sector, but I believe the government should always be accessible even if yo…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Losing access because someone stole your account is even worse because of how much access a Google account gives someone.
Having spent nearly six years homeless and also had a college class from SFSU in Homelessness and Public Policy and having written about homelessness for years, I can assure you that for the vast majority of homeless people, losing their physical phone or being unable to pay for it is a much bigger problem than other people wanting to break into their accounts and steal their identity or some such.
Homeless people don't need to use 2fa if they are so unconcerned with someone stealing their account or identity. For the rest of us 2fa and making it hard to steal accounts is 100% a must.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Problem is that support people mistakenly resetting account auth when the attacker calls up and social engineers them is a bigger and more common issue than people’s only device dying. Not to say that’s not a thing that happens, but it’s a smaller of the two problems.
Tying someone's identity to their phone number is not the answer, though. I have this at the moment - I'm travelling, moving country every few weeks, so I need a new SIM card and phone number every few weeks. My phone number is temporary at best. I'd massively prefer to take the risk of my identity being stolen than constantly fighting security measures that assume people never change their phone number (or country o…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They expect that none of your devices will ever die? This makes no sense.
It makes plenty of sense to Google: engineer for the 98% use case and the remaining 2% should just go away and stop wasting their time.
I understand people value the ability to express themselves anonymously, but I've also been locked out of legitimate accounts--
If everyone is anonymous nobody can be verified. If everyone's identity is tied to their handle there's no anonymous expression.
If somebody could provide a way to both have and eat the proverbial cake, that seems like real winning proposition in my eyes, something worth paying for...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> work laptop, my home laptop, and my phone There’s a fire or gas explosion or earthquake or something, and you need to leave all those behind. What do you do? > Oh, everyone else is just hoping they never lose their phone? Really? I would be very, very surprised if that’s not what the vast majority of the population is doing. Many people have a phone as their _only_ computing device, and no printer, and don’t really…
> What do you do? I get screwed! I guess the right answer is that I have the backup codes carefully preserved.... off site! In case of natural disaster. Every time I sign up for a new account, I print out the backup codes, and take them to an off-site secure storage location, which of course i have... somewhere. There's no way 90%+ of internet users are doing that. I'm not even going to pretend I have any chance of d…
for the rest there are other options.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The trick isn't to disable 2FA. It's to add a bunch of 2FA methods that don't rely on your cell phone: authenticator app, yubi keys, backup codes.
This is terrible advice. Please don't ever rely on authenticator apps. Try changing your phone, resetting your phone or losing your phone and watch yourself get locked out of your accounts with absolutely no recourse.