This feels like one of those "security" changes that also happens to conveniently eliminate a lot of privacy-preserving workflows
Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message
131–140 of 549 posts
Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't really change the fact that it's hard. Do you know how many full movies are on YouTube that infringe on copyright? How many pirated streams are hosted on S3? How many piracy sites are behind Cloudflare. It's just very hard to police at scale and if something is flying below the radar it will be there for a while. They probably spread out their assets over many accounts, or even use misconfigured buckets…
I kinda lost the plot here - what does piracy have to do with spam and phishing?
Attempted platform moderation and abuse-enforcement.
Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently it’s just an SMS URI. It’s not something specific to a phone. It’s just a convenient method to enter your phone number.
To enter their phone number because you sent an SMS to them. So if there are any costs for sending this SMS it’s on you.
There weren’t any infrastructure costs to sending the first SMS ever,
there shouldn’t be any remaining for the consumer today
unless you’re a real unfortunate soul.
Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message
#134> Supposedly, using the QR code on the smartphone triggers an SMS sent from your phone to Google in order to verify your phone number. Does anyone have a better source of information than this one forum comment from someone who thinks scanning a QR code is enough to get your phone to send a text message? EDIT: It’s just an SMS URI. It doesn’t automatically send anything, just opens a text message for you to send. Thi…
That clarification matters, but I don't think it makes the privacy concern disappear
Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message
#135I can say that this QR code could be requested if IP is suspicious and/or associated with unusual activity. Recently I did register a new google account from my own residential IP and it did not request any additional confirmations, not even SMS verification.
Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message
#136I tried to create a new gmail address recently because my primary gmail address is my name, and it's quite common, so I get more email for other people than I get for me. My phone number - which I've had for about 15 years and have only ever used for personal purposes (minimal SMS, mainly just an iMessage/Whatsapp ID) - is apparently "not eligible" to create a new gmail account. Which is quite strange.
For something as central as a Google account, it feels pretty unreasonable that a long-held personal number can be silently rejected with no appeal path or explanation
Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message
#137Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
It follows the same logic as physical junk mail. We accept the fact that we will receive junk mailers in our physical mailbox and just toss them out.
There is a big difference between advertising your services and trying to literally steal people's money.
This is an underrated distinction. Sadly, the line is so much more blurred now than even when I was a kid in the 90s.
There are so many businesses now which exist mainly to cheat you, operating at the very edge of what’s technically legal, and relying on their customers not really understanding the full terms of the deals they’re agreeing to. It’s sickening.
Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message
#139Gmail has been evil both for client privacy as they use email scanning for marketing purposes, and for 'spam' filters that reject legitimate emails. The fact that they're introducing QR/SMS/MMS/whatever they want is actually an interesting signal, because it will harm the customer experience, which might result in the growth of responsible paid email services.
I agree with the broader point, but I'm not sure the migration to paid email is automatic
Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe that these spammers now concentrate their efforts towards e-mail addresses hosted by major providers, like Gmail. The reason is that I have an opposite experience, during the last couple of years I have received much less spam messages than before. I have hosted my own e-mail server for more than 2 decades. Previously, I had to filter large quantities of spam messages, but lately the number of spam messages…
I’m considering self hosted. I’m so tired of the major providers not even trying. And I have no serious control over blocklists.
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