Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by whywhywhywhy » Mon, May 11, 2026, 5:34 PM UTC

torben-friis wrote: post #22

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

Spam is getting horrible lately. I get all sorts of new techniques including: - using legitimate sites to bypass filters, like sending you a bill through a legitimate bill-creation site - pretending to be a tracking service for something you supposedly ordered, then over the course of days pretending the package got lost on the way and offering a discount code for the 'purchased' amount, expecting you to use it on th…

> pretending to be a tracking service for something you supposedly ordered

There’s a leak or someone is selling the data in a lot of the delivery companies in my country. I order something then without fail the fake text message pretending to be the delivery service. Only thing they screw up is claiming it’s failed to deliver too soon and the weird urls.

Messed up these companies are either selling it or being irresponsible with data.

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

#182

Post by traderj0e » Mon, May 11, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

nzeid wrote: post #178

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. If they ever shut it down the whole world would end up rioting because it's so widely used. Not even remotely true. They regularly shut down products and services with impunity. If Gmail cost more than the data they directly or indirectly mine and sell from their users, Gmail wouldn't exist either.

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

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

#183

Post by tyre » Mon, May 11, 2026, 5:36 PM UTC

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.…

I don’t think it’s for free. There are ads in (free) Gmail, they harvest your data, and then the paid accounts are, well, paid.

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

#184

Post by JakkTrent » Mon, May 11, 2026, 5:36 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #149

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…

This argument actually doesn’t work in Google/your-point favor since finding pirated content on Google is now practically impossible. The reality is, Google is driven strictly by incentives and there are no consequences for letting spam/scams run wild vs. pirated content which gets automatically removed when a DMCA notice is received.

There is 100% pirated content on Youtube - not too much from Hollywood and you won't find anime on it - but if you watch foreign language media, there is very often the Official account and then like 4-5 others just blatantly providing the identical content, which is promoted alongside the legitmate content, so its fairly easy to start watching legit stream and find yourself not watching legitimatly a few episodes later, playlists are huge to prevent that.

The problem with this is the piecemeal enforcement all but proves they only care about stuff they get a cut of and that fact became more clear to me recently when I was watching a random drama made in Asia that I wont name due it being one of the best historical and educational shows I've ever watched - but there was a scene (this was made in the 90s btw) that was entirely innocent, not sexualized - it was done humorously, but I'm not a pdf file either so - anyways, there were fully naked children, with absolutely no censorship, on Youtube - 100% long enough to be noticed by their trackers - they obviously just are not reviewing certain content, at all.

I don't care about piracy at all - I'd still use Youtube if it was the primary source for pirated content, the idea that there may be some obscure content, that seems totally fine, in a language nobody really uses - except for Epstein types, if ever that was discovered - that Youtube had become a haven for pdf files bc of lax application of standards - I would want Youtube split away from Alphabet and force sold on the cheap to a more responsible owner (like Tiktok minus the responsible owner part) - plus an enormous fine.

I didn't believe that such content could exist at all on the platform - until I literally saw with my eyes that it obviously can.

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

#185

Post by catlikesshrimp » Mon, May 11, 2026, 5:36 PM UTC

jeroenhd wrote: post #159

TimByte wrote: post #131

This feels like one of those "security" changes that also happens to conveniently eliminate a lot of privacy-preserving workflows

There are services online dedicated to temporary account activation phone numbers to bypass Google's requirements, but most of them can only receive messages. Requiring the user to send an SMS seems like an excellent method to get rid of those services so that bots can no longer use them. I don't really see the point of a privacy-preserving workflow when it comes to a Google account. It's not like they need to know y…

They might adapt and support sending sms (hopefully) in addition to receiving them. I guess all other services which send sms verification code will switch to ask the user to send the sms, like google.

>>don't really see the point of a privacy-preserving workflow when it comes to a Google account. It's not like they need to know your phone number to track you.

More information is always better.

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

#186

Post by traderj0e » Mon, May 11, 2026, 5:37 PM UTC

vachina wrote: post #72

Google is trying to retain the value of their userbase, because many third party services use Gmail auth as a signal for low fraud risk.

Yep. In general I'm glad I have so many random accounts now that everyone is getting more protective, it's like a credit score.

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

#187

Post by catlikesshrimp » Mon, May 11, 2026, 5:37 PM UTC

webdoodle wrote: post #146

TimByte wrote: post #131

This feels like one of those "security" changes that also happens to conveniently eliminate a lot of privacy-preserving workflows

Because it is. Total surveillance only works if the people are forced to wear the tracking collar. The next steps are tying it to CBDC, that require a phone number to access your wallet, and tying it to realid/passport to restrict travel. 2FA has become the wedge to break privacy into a million shards.

I prefer TOTP, but service providers seem to prefer their own apps or sms.

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

#188

Post by Pooge » Mon, May 11, 2026, 5:38 PM UTC

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.

Lol, what? One of the biggest company on Earth is being pictured as a victim for creating services that siphon data out of half the planet's people? Don't take it personally but I can't fathom how you think this is FREE. It's literally the most lucrative business there is and it's only going to get worse—and not for them.

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

#189

Post by tomjen3 » Mon, May 11, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

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.…

I am not sure the backslash would be big if Gmail said that a year from now you would have to pay $9.99 per month to use your Gmail ($12.99 ad-free). I mean people would complain, but would that actually give a backslash? Especially if they made it easy for people to move their account elsewhere? People are used to paying a lot more for things outside of tech.

I suspect what is really holding them back is the loss of data, and the loss of the assumption that ~everyone has a Google account that they are logged into, which means they can be traced around the web. Google also benefits from this, since its anti-bot tool will be more accurate and less fustrating to users.

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

#190

Post by traderj0e » Mon, May 11, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

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.…

I get the difficulty of fighting spam, just wanted to say that Gmail is probably making them money too. It's still free to make an account, which means they have to be careful who they give it to.