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Dear Googles: Stop asking

plus.google.com

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Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#151

Post by username223 »

bobbydavid wrote: post #129
joicew wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(323) 905 - 4259 ? Or do you believe when you give your phone number to Google, it's obfuscated, not indexed or searchable, and not permanently associated with you for their current or future use? Next step - has anyone confirmed your identity yet?

I was unpleasantly surprised to see your post deliberately undoing the GP's attempt to obfuscate his number. Is your goal to bully GP into supporting privacy? It doesn't matter the technical details of whether the number is easier to search, it's the intent I find disturbing about this.

What supposed intent do you find disturbing? Google wants to associate a credit card number with your login, and getting your phone number is a good way to do it. Someone created a throwaway account on a website, and wrote a post asking for phone numbers. Someone made the mistake of giving hers.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#152

Post by couchand »

idupree wrote: post #76
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…

I use FastMail. They seem competent. (This is a high compliment.)

The interface is simple and clean, their mobile site is lightweight and they seem committed to continued improvements. I'd highly recommend switching to FastMail.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#153

Post by ancarda »

AsmMAn wrote: post #110
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…

What about mail.com as your new mail service?

It doesn't seem like I can use my own domain. That's actually extremely important as I don't want to end up in the same scenario I'm in (can't just pack up and move). It seems my options are:

* Host myself and deal with possibly losing mail, high spam, rejected mail or downtime.

* Pay for a service to handle this for me (either partially like Mailgun or fully like FastMail).

If I want more uptime, I could lease a VPS. Either way, I have to pay up somewhere (money or loss of data). If I'm paying, I'd rather back a company that cares about privacy, like FastMail.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#154

Post by alextingle »

brownbat wrote: post #90
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…

> Just who the fuck do they think they are?? One of the leading services targeted by account generation farms to launch spam.

Go on, tell me how you send spam e-mail through Google+.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#155

Post by alextingle »

joyeuse6701 wrote: post #43
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…

Wait wait wait, so your issue was that she'd have to accept a call? As in, have to talk to someone? As in, perform one of the most basic human interactions that is part of what makes us human? And that offends your senses to the point that you consider it intrusive? How antisocial are you? Who do you think YOU are that you can't have a simple chat with another human being. Are you the king of England? Le Roi? Is Goog…

I don't give my phone number to anybody who doesn't need it. Lots of places ask/demand it, but it's always actually optional. There's no law that says you have to have a phone, after all.

So, there's no way I'm going to give up my phone number in exchange for a log-in on a free web-site.

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#157

Post by leephillips »

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…

"New/dynamic addresses tend to not be trusted by other mail servers"

Running my own mail server for over a decade, and never had a deliverability problem. Of course, you shouldn't try to send from a dynamic IP, but what is a "new" address?

Re: Dear Googles: Stop asking

#158

Post by mistercow »

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.

People say that, but these are just labels, and ultimately it doesn't make a difference. The thing that matters is who has power in the relationship. Look at heroin; users are customers, but those supplying the product hold the power. Or look at the music industry: musicians are the product, fans are the customers, and neither of them have much power.
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