How likely is losing a Google account? • Hacker News Board

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#271

Post by jjav » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 5:22 AM UTC

nmjenkins wrote: post #253

jefftk wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't just a hypothetical: a few years ago Fastmail support was socially engineered into giving access to a HN user's account: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15855081

(Architect of Fastmail's login/account recovery protocols here.) Firstly, I will say this incident was unacceptable, and we were deeply sorry about it. However, it is also the only time it has happened in our over 20 year history (to the best of our knowledge of course). We already had several projects underway to improve the security of account recovery at the time, which unfortunately hadn't quite landed yet. Since…

> Elsewhere it's been mentioned that different people may have different priorities in balancing ensuring they don't lock themselves out, versus ensuring an attacker can never access their account

Thank you, this is the most important observation.

Service providers should be providing flexible mechanisms to meet different needs, they should absolutely not be imposing a one-size-fits-all policy. That's the fundamental wrongness with google/facebook and their ilk.

Only I know what the security levels I need for any given account I own. I must be able to configure the policy.

Sometimes, I value my access above all else. With some other account I may value preventing access to others even at the risk of losing access myself. Other variants are possible. Only I know what the correct policy is in any given case.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#272

Post by __warlord__ » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 5:42 AM UTC

I have a question.

All my domains are registered in google domains, if my account gets locked... will those domains also be locked?

Also, which domain register would you recommend besides google domains?

BTW: google domains is the only service I currenly use with a google account.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#273

Post by deintumi » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 6:49 AM UTC

DontchaKnowit wrote: post #61

If anyone can help woththis,please reach out : My father owns a business that has been family owned and operated by my grandpa and my father for nearly 50 years. The name of the business contaibs our last name. The google street view of the business is my fathers home. Recently my fathers domain registration lapsed and someone bought the domain. We changed the website to a different address and went to change the goo…

Can you share the domain?

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#274

Post by SebastianKra » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:12 AM UTC

> After going through these, it seems to me that the likelihood of a security lockout is low enough not to worry about [...]

I disagree. I've managed to get locked out twice now.

The first time I have no idea what happened. Google just disregarded the correctly completed email-verification and security questions and just said "no". I retried a month later and was able to log in.

The second time, I logged in from an university-owned Android phone. Despite not even being an admin on that phone, Google decided that it would now be my only permitted 2FA method, and so, when I tried to log in away from university, I was locked out.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#275

Post by brewdad » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:33 AM UTC

morpheos137 wrote: post #231

c22 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has the same incentive to consider users. If your eyeballs go away they have no recourse for tomorrow. This is no doubt why they give their services away. If they thought they could achieve similar market share while also charging you they certainly would. (And they do whenever they see the chance.)

Google certainly could charge a very small fee for existing gmail, youtube, etc, accounts and make a bunch of money. In fact there is a pretty strong argument that they are leaving money on the table by not doing so. Imagine you like your gmail and you have had it for the past decade. If Google charges only $1 per year across say a billion users that is a billion dollars. Even if they lose some users at the margin it…

$1 a year would probably barely cover the administrative and payment processing costs. $2 a year would do the trick though. :)

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#276

Post by brewdad » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:38 AM UTC

raylad wrote: post #243

kugelblitz wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a Sony Bravia, but made sure never to enter the wifi password into the TV directly, but rather hook up an Apple TV and only use that. This way I still have a "dumb TV" (apparently impossible to get now). Second option would have been to get a projector.

I have a Sony Bravia, configured it on WiFi, and created a new gmail account to use with the built-in Android TV system. It seems fine: no ads, nothing spamming, and it has an option to not share any data, which presumably (!) it pays attention to.

I started with the no wifi plan for my Sony. They would put popups on screen warning me that I wasn't connected to the internet, even when using a streaming device or blu-ray just often enough that they got me to connect it to the internet. I don't use their apps and turned off the data sharing. I haven't noticed an uptick in personalized ads anywhere. If anything, my Facebook ads are worse than they were before. Just a bunch of crap I'm not actually interested in.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#277

Post by brewdad » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:41 AM UTC

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #197

Forgeties79 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of nonsense on my LG C1 is nonsense given what I paid for it. Seriously considering getting an Apple TV or Nvidia Shield to run all my stuff on. Their UI is so bloated with crap.

Unfortunately, the Nvidia Shield hasn't been the community darling for some time. Ever since there was an OS update that started putting ads on the homescreen.

These days I get better performance out of my $25 Fire stick than the Shield. The ads are a bit worse, especially since I don't even have Prime anymore but I'll stick with it until it gets to be too much or too slow and then probably buy an AppleTV.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#278

Post by brewdad » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:45 AM UTC

PascLeRasc wrote: post #159

guptaneil wrote: post #13

It's true that every service has to deal with the same policy and lockout problems, but that doesn't lead to the conclusion that the risk is the same. I pay for FastMail because 1. if something goes wrong, I can reach a human without needing to write a viral blog post first. Other services pay for a customer service department. 2. I trust FastMail more to not shut down their product because they got bored. Sure Gmail…

I can't find any information on what happens if you stop paying for a Fastmail account. 1Password for example freezes your account in read-only mode. It's documented that Fastmail will re-use addresses for free trials and when a user requests to cancel [1]. It isn't clear what would happen if for some reason your card expired, they stopped accepting it [2], or your bank messed up and blocked the transaction [3]. To m…

This is why paying for your own domain is so important. I keep mine prepaid for multiple years and my registrar sends me at least 5 emails before I would ever be at risk of losing it. My email address won't be getting reused until either emails are no longer relevant or I'm dead.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#279

Post by brewdad » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:50 AM UTC

remus wrote: post #244

nirvdrum wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've managed a Google Workplace account (~30 paid users) for over a decade and have never had support respond in less than a week. And each time I got a canned response. I just don't even bother anymore, which is likely what they want. I don't think this is a free vs paid thing. It's just the way Google operates.

It depends how much money you spend with them. If you shell out for expensive support in GCP you get guaranteed response times, dedicated account reps and so on.

I'm paying $10 a year for my email and the one time I had an issue I got a response within 8 hours and a follow-up after everything was resolved. It shouldn't require Fortune 500 levels of spending to get basic service.

Re: How likely is losing a Google account?

#280

Post by brewdad » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:58 AM UTC

Maxburn wrote: post #194

creata wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you have to. For example, no matter how badly Microsoft wrongs them, people in many industries need to use Windows, or Office, or LinkedIn.

Microsoft, I get it. Google no. I am very very close to being able to kill my google account though I probably will just leave it parked. Believe it or not Google Voice is the one thing holding me at the moment. Nobody offers the same quality service period, let alone free. Come at me HN, I'm open to alternatives. Google Voice also has one killer feature nobody else has; the ability to make and receive calls using yo…

Google Voice is the only service I don't have a good replacement for either. I pay for Youtube TV (cable streaming) because it has the best price/value proposition for my viewing habits but there are a half dozen other services I could switch to and be happy.

I still have a shared calendar on Google but only because I can't convince my wife to try something different. I used to be all-in on Google but have spent the past 2 years getting away as much as I can.