111–120 of 205 posts
Honest question: Let’s assume for a moment that google wants to do something evil, what kind of info will “providing a mobile number” give to google that the email, searches, possibly DNS queries, oauth2 authentication and browsing tracker will not?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're being downvote but an appleTV is completely useless without an appleId...
Well, when there is only one App Store and it requires you to log in, it in effect means you have to have an Apple ID -- which is a far cry from being forced to give up your phone number to use your own personal computer.
I've had this happen with gmail accounts randomly. Most of the time with computers I've been using for years on the same network. The worst occasion I've ever had was the one time I was traveling. I was getting by with only wifi and, naturally, didn't have a phone number to confirm my account with. I didn't have a number bound to my account, either, making the whole process pointless. How did I get into my account? I…
I had a Gmail account for a secondary email address that I used at times. One day I logged in with my email and password, and Google said I needed to further verify my identity. Well, my security question was a bogus one because I was confident with my password manager and backups it would not be needed. But, I guess I was wrong, because I didn't anticipate that knowing the password wouldn't be enough for Google. I n…
There are a few things that make me wonder if I can trust a company. Security questions, stupid password restrictions, sending me a password in plain text via email.
>Am I crazy or does this seem like an extremely cynical attempt to get more phone numbers? Yes it does. The normal Gmail interface I get now has a forgot password link which is by default activated after I enter the username. I have to explicitly jump over that to continue entering the actual password and thus to my mail box.
After I have managed to restore it more than 4 hours later, I permanently deleted my account and Google immediately contacted me with apologies, asking me for the reason I did such thing.
They have tried to persuade me to restore my account with a couple of emails, but it was already too late.
I cannot trust them anymore.
I want to have absolutely nothing to do with Alphabet or Google; if a certain service that I currently use gets acquired by either of them, then I will delete that account too immediately.
Enough is enough!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find teens rather cautious about giving out phone numbers, older generation - much less so.
Anyone over the age of 40 (and many younger) will have had a landline, almost all in the phone book. Name, address, and phone all neatly collected, very few were bothered.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They closed that loophole in Europe after the terrorist attacks of recent years. You can't buy pre-paid SIM cards without giving an ID anymore.
In Portugal you can buy and use a prepaid sim card without showing your ID or giving away any personal information. On the other hand buying credit is done via the bank, so you only have a few euros to spend before losing anonymity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a Gmail account for a secondary email address that I used at times. One day I logged in with my email and password, and Google said I needed to further verify my identity. Well, my security question was a bogus one because I was confident with my password manager and backups it would not be needed. But, I guess I was wrong, because I didn't anticipate that knowing the password wouldn't be enough for Google. I n…
Stupid "security" questions, I've started answering them like "what's your favourite colour?" - "colour" or "what was your first pet's name" - "pet". There are a few things that make me wonder if I can trust a company. Security questions, stupid password restrictions, sending me a password in plain text via email.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am very curious to know of a bank or credit union that will open an account without a social security number.
Non US citizens are able to open bank accounts in the US. By definition they do not have social security numbers.