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Dear Googles: Stop asking

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Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#61

Post by ams6110 »

fakeanon wrote: post #44
ancarda wrote: post #11

The main issue is Google will only drive a small minority of it's customers/'products being sold' away. If you have a problem with Google's current approach, you may want to consider leaving, not to "stick it to the man" but to not have to deal with their services anymore. I recently deleted everything on my account (G+ & YT included) and it feels great to be free from the constant harassment. I only have Gmail activ…

For some people it is harder. I deleted my personal Google accounts a while ago. Our school e-mail is Gmail. When we visit Youtube after logging in for Gmail, you have an account, just not a channel. A little box telling you about the updated comment section keeps popping up. There is not a great danger to what they are currently doing, but it is annoying.

Use incognito mode for YouTube.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#62

Post by kordless »

antr wrote: post #37
alextingle wrote: post #10

I was all enthusiastic about G+ for about 5 minutes - until they wouldn't allow my wife to sign up without giving them her phone number, and proving that it was hers by accepting a call from them . Just who the fuck do they think they are?? There is no way I could suggest my friends and family sign up to such an intrusive service, so I quickly deleted my own account. It's an absolutely stunning achievement to create…

Amen, google has turned into a genuine identity thieve. a few months ago, i think it was primarily driven by the whole prism thing, i decided to create a bogus google account, using a disposable phone number. Now I have a three google accounts: personal (for email), work (email, google apps, drive, adwords, etc), and my bogus account (a 70+ year old lady using google search, youtube and the rest of the google crapwar…

Let me see if I understand you: The revelation of the NSA's activities made you fearful and so you decided to make fake Google accounts with fake phone numbers to alleviate those fears. All from the same IP address?

How exactly does this help keep your identity safe? Because they don't have your phone number tied to your account? How many times have you put your phone number in your emails to people? I looked, and over the last year I've sent my number to people over 150 times. I used to have it in my sig. How many people do that?

It seems like you and others are fearful of Google's actions because you are fearful of the government's actions. Remember, Google freaked out about PRISM, and the result was them encrypting traffic between their data centers to PREVENT the government from spying on your data: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/google...

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#63

Post by hexagonc »

Tarang wrote: post #8

Its really annoying since you know its a script and it can just keep asking you again and again. Sometimes it asks me my cell number while trying to check my email (even on my paid google apps account!) Facebook has taken an interesting more sneaky turn recently with their messenger app. Since now they can collect phone numbers without explicitly asking for them. Once it's given to them just once.. Its with them fore…

Yes, it's just a script, but you know that there was a human behind that script. Someone at Google, probably pretty high up, made a decision that they're going to keep pestering you, and making your experience as shitty as possible until you give them what they want.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#64

Post by kordless »

sitharus wrote: post #57
kordless wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just who the fuck do they think they are?? They think they are Google - you know, the guys that made the Internet searchable. I'm pretty sure they know what they are doing. Call verification is used by many services to establish ownership of an account, and to provide a fallback mechanism that automates the recovery of an account. Google likes to automate the shit out of things. This is no different. I hear that yo…

> Call verification is used by many services to establish ownership of an account, and to provide a fallback mechanism that automates the recovery of an account. Google likes to automate the shit out of things. This is no different. I've been using the internet for well over a decade now. The number of services I've signed up for must be in the hundreds. I've never had to verify my identity unless a monetary transact…

> Nothing I get from Google+ needs any confirmation of my real identity.

Now we're getting to the nut of the real argument.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#65

Post by simias »

zaraflan wrote: post #51
buro9 wrote: post #34

Does Google believe that if they just push a little harder and finish the job, that somehow the people so alienated will be won over? Or is the pursuit of profit far more important than the perception of the brand overall? Right now, and for the last year, the brand is being severely tarnished in all of the networks I have, tech and real-life. I don't see them winning on any front. A Pyrrhic victory.

Never forget that you are not the customer, you are the product.

That's just silly, Google can't afford to alienate its users, whether you consider them customers or products. This phrase is becoming a meme.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#66

Post by Flimm »

zaraflan wrote: post #51
buro9 wrote: post #34

Does Google believe that if they just push a little harder and finish the job, that somehow the people so alienated will be won over? Or is the pursuit of profit far more important than the perception of the brand overall? Right now, and for the last year, the brand is being severely tarnished in all of the networks I have, tech and real-life. I don't see them winning on any front. A Pyrrhic victory.

Never forget that you are not the customer, you are the product.

That's completely irrelevant. Google need you as a product to sell to their customers.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#67

Post by rjd »

yuhong wrote: post #28
rjd wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You totally miss the point. Its not about how great two factor authentication is. Its about the fact I don't want to use the two factor authentication, I'd rather loose everything. I'd rather have my "sensitive" data compromised than have some multinational advertising company that has been compromised by every major government on the planet have access to me at any given time. And its as annoying as having someone s…

>I'd rather have my "sensitive" data compromised than have some multinational marketing company that has been compromised by every major government on the planet have access to me at any given time. They are far from the same thing, and why do you think it is worse?

Because whats on my Google is mildly embarrassing, where as I grew up group of kids from Yugoslavia, where the government forces used information like this to butcher people in the streets, in there homes. I turn not he TV and see it happening in Iraq, and Syria right now.

Its not a future I want this world to have, and we are unfortunately enabling it, as always, with poorly thought through best intentions.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#68

Post by saurik »

StavrosK wrote: post #40
selectodude wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel somewhat dirty saying this, but I'm a fan of Office 365. Exchange support, fantastic customer service, and I feel like if I'm paying money, I'm actually the customer. NSA's got all my shit anyway, at this point. If I can find an equivalent product that doesn't have the .gov down their throats, I'll jump ship tomorrow. But for now...

I just got an idea: The hard part about setting up your own email server is, by far, ensuring deliverability. New/dynamic addresses tend to not be trusted by other mail servers, so that is really the most "dangerous"/time consuming part. So, why not do the following?: * Set up your home server to accept email. If it goes down for a few hours, hey, pretty much every mail server will retry for a few days, so you're pre…

I do this (but will argue doing it under some free limit misses the point: man up and pay for your use...); in my case I'm using either AuthSMTP or CritSend for my personal manually-sent outgoing mail (I don't remember which; I have accounts with both).

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#69

Post by rahoulb »

yuhong wrote: post #46
antr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amen, google has turned into a genuine identity thieve. a few months ago, i think it was primarily driven by the whole prism thing, i decided to create a bogus google account, using a disposable phone number. Now I have a three google accounts: personal (for email), work (email, google apps, drive, adwords, etc), and my bogus account (a 70+ year old lady using google search, youtube and the rest of the google crapwar…

this type of business, unilateral decisions are what made microsoft a "hated" company back in the late 90s, early 2000s. It was a lot more than that.

Maybe, but once trust starts to erode, the effects of it may not be seen for a few years. And once lost it's extremely difficult to get back.

I certainly get the feeling that Google's halo is slipping.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#70

Post by ancarda »

StavrosK wrote: post #40
selectodude wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel somewhat dirty saying this, but I'm a fan of Office 365. Exchange support, fantastic customer service, and I feel like if I'm paying money, I'm actually the customer. NSA's got all my shit anyway, at this point. If I can find an equivalent product that doesn't have the .gov down their throats, I'll jump ship tomorrow. But for now...

I just got an idea: The hard part about setting up your own email server is, by far, ensuring deliverability. New/dynamic addresses tend to not be trusted by other mail servers, so that is really the most "dangerous"/time consuming part. So, why not do the following?: * Set up your home server to accept email. If it goes down for a few hours, hey, pretty much every mail server will retry for a few days, so you're pre…

I've never considered that.

That's actually a really good idea, especially as reliability will be higher. My connection rarely drops and I have a static IPv6 too so DNS may be far easier to configure.

Edit: An idea to ease transition would be to setup the vacation responder in gmail to remind your contacts about your new address.

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