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Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message

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Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message

#261

Post by gowld »

dvh wrote: post #4

Any Gmail person can tell me why Gmail is tolerating Gmail phishing emails that use Google's own services (e.g. https://storage.googleapis.com/savelinge/ ... ? More info here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46665414

That page looks phishing-related but doesn't appear to directly serving abusive content?

Does that XML get processed by a mailreader?

http://doc.s3.amazonaws.com/2006-03-01"> savelinge false winbridge.html 1775478745793193 2 2026-04-06T12:32:25.871Z "3616712a8e68db66062a3f514b5fb7c8" 626

Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message

#262

Post by intended »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #57
dewey wrote: post #9

Earlier 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…

Google's inability to scale their services should be a regulatory issue. If their platforms (Gmail, YouTube, DoubleClick) are being used to launch scams, they're failing at scale and governments are failing at legislating / regulating. The only way to use Google services somewhat safely is with hefty ad (and the rest) blocking. All this ID and surveillance and privacy invasion and metadata retention and yet all these…

Trust and safety doesn’t have the same maturity as cyber security. Things like trend and signal sharing between tech firms doesn’t exist, except through informal slack channels and WhatsApp groups.

The first major safety conferences for trust and safety came together only in 2023.

Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message

#263

Post by sebmellen »

Bender wrote: post #256
Night_Thastus wrote: post #177

People complain a lot about Gmail, but honestly I kind of understand Google's plight here. They've essentially gotten roped into maintaining a huge chunk of internet infrastructure, for free . If they ever shut it down the whole world would end up rioting because it's so widely used. But it's expensive, complicated and time-consuming to maintain - and both a source of and recipient of endless waves of spam and scams.…

Gmail is not now nor has it ever been free. Everyone pays for it. To your point many people use it and for businesses to contact their customers they have to pay into whitelists for high volume delivery. The costs are passed onto the customers, including those that have never used Gmail. Companies that do not pay into such lists and that have many customers using gmail have to set up careful rate limits which means t…

Is this really true? Where are these lists? I’ve never heard of this so I’m quite intrigued.

Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message

#264

Post by omcnoe »

duskwuff wrote: post #212
traderj0e wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stuff they've shut down has been nowhere near as important as Gmail.

Shutting down GMail would practically amount to shutting down email. It's by far the largest email provider in the US (and probably in the world but I don't have that data). There's no other provider who could take up the slack; if it were to abruptly shut down, a lot of users would simply lose access to email altogether.

I’d honestly expect to see regulatory intervention if they tried this.

Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message

#265

Post by dvh »

gowld wrote: post #261
dvh wrote: post #4

Any Gmail person can tell me why Gmail is tolerating Gmail phishing emails that use Google's own services (e.g. https://storage.googleapis.com/savelinge/ ... ? More info here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46665414

That page looks phishing-related but doesn't appear to directly serving abusive content? Does that XML get processed by a mailreader? http://doc.s3.amazonaws.com/2006-03-01 "> savelinge false winbridge.html 1775478745793193 2 2026-04-06T12:32:25.871Z "3616712a8e68db66062a3f514b5fb7c8" 626

I shortened url to remove PII. Full url causes few redirects before landing on scam site.

Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message

#266

Post by bachmeier »

redserk wrote: post #215
Night_Thastus wrote: post #177

People complain a lot about Gmail, but honestly I kind of understand Google's plight here. They've essentially gotten roped into maintaining a huge chunk of internet infrastructure, for free . If they ever shut it down the whole world would end up rioting because it's so widely used. But it's expensive, complicated and time-consuming to maintain - and both a source of and recipient of endless waves of spam and scams.…

> They've essentially gotten roped into maintaining a huge chunk of internet infrastructure, for free. I’ll stop you here. Google offered it for free and, at the time, offered such an high amount of mail storage for free it sounded insane. At the time, my ISP gave me a 25MB or 50MB inbox and that was considered pretty decent, when Google was trying to get people in with 1-2GB. They absolutely have a right to take ant…

> and certainly aren’t obligated to provide it for free

And I'll stop you here. It's less than obvious that there's no obligation. If you provide a critical service that folks rely on at a price less than your cost, you drive out competition, and it's a critical part of your own business model, dropping the service without warning is IMO on the border of what Google should be allowed to do.

Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message

#267

Post by bandie91 »

dotancohen wrote: post #171
Griffinsauce wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Netherlands you put a sticker on your mail box with either of these: - NO ads, NO magazines/papers - NO ads, YES magazines/papers Some municipalities even make it opt-in so you'd need YES/YES to get mail without a name and address on it. (ie. not direct mail) There are also laws to enable opting out of direct mail (with name and address). In effect, junk mail is just gone once you slap a sticker on your mailbo…

What jurisdiction is responsible for regulating my, Israeli, email "sticker compliance" when using Gmail, American, and the sender is in Romania?

the analogy breaks at "...to get mail without a name and address on it". spam emails always have RCPT TO.

Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message

#268

Post by motbus3 »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #177

People complain a lot about Gmail, but honestly I kind of understand Google's plight here. They've essentially gotten roped into maintaining a huge chunk of internet infrastructure, for free . If they ever shut it down the whole world would end up rioting because it's so widely used. But it's expensive, complicated and time-consuming to maintain - and both a source of and recipient of endless waves of spam and scams.…

> They've essentially gotten roped into maintaining a huge chunk of internet infrastructure, for free

What you mean for free? First, they have all the data they get from you. They now track you even when you are not using your phone. They can/could know if you are doing your number 2 regularly or not only.

They control how the internet moves. Https? Sure can enforce. Trackers, etags ? Why not.

They sell every single bit of information on you for a good price. And now they are even more friends with a very good orange buyer. They have a TOS on you that they can chop and sell you whenever they want and you can't complain.

What you mean for free? Maybe for you it seems free, but people are paying them premium for lots of stuff.

Google used to be admired by the innovation and good ideas that shaped the world to a better world. Now they are still shaping the world, but not for everyone

Re: Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message

#269

Post by chrsstrm »

arjie wrote: post #58

I went through it to register just now. No QR code required. Same flow as it has been for years: 1. Personal/Child/Business 2. First/Last 3. Pick email 4. Date of Birth 5. Backup email / Skip 6. Password 7. Enter phone number 8. Confirm with 2FA code 9. Done. I just made the email testregistrationflow@gmail.com and have since forgotten the password. So that’s one burned. But feel free to try testregistrationflow1@gma…

You can reach a point where the phone number you used for 2FA has been "used too many times" and then you're stuck in the middle of registration. There doesn't seem to be any documented limit anywhere and the only solution people have been able to use is find someone else to help you verify with their phone number. What makes this more difficult is when you get logged out of one of your accounts, they ask for a phone number for 2FA to login, you provide the same phone number you used originally (even though it is not officially associated with your account, just to verify registration), but that fails because your number has apparently been used too often. So now you can't even log in to your valid account that already exists. Sure, should have added some other form of 2FA or a passkey to the account, but why can't I verify with the same number I used originally? And just to top things off, you can't use your Google Voice number for 2FA account verification when signing up for another Google service.
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