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Google's most ridiculous trick to force users into adding phone number

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Google's most ridiculous trick to force users into adding phone number

#21

Post by imchillyb »

markdown wrote: post #13
jqpabc123 wrote: post #7

I guess I'll just have to stop using google. Welcome to the club. The fastest way to convince me *not* to use a product is to attach a "Google" label to it. Nothing Google has to offer justifies the drawbacks. NOTE: I do use an Android phone --- but only after it has been thoroughly de-Googled --- starting from a stripped down, bare metal device that won't even power up.

HN needs a bot that posts an inb4 comment every time there's a post about Google or a Google product. These predictable responses don't add any value whatsoever, and they're tiring to read.

The predictable responses, to the predictable responses add even less value than the original comment did.

I wish HN would auto-remove these BS comments about BS comments. They're so tiring and boring...

Re: Google's most ridiculous trick to force users into adding phone number

#22

Post by elric »

14 wrote: post #2

The only solution I can see is buying a burner phone to avoid these situations. Yesterday tried to set up a new to me used iPhone 7 for my son. It too forces a phone number from you. I had to link my phone number to his phone which I didn’t really want to do.

Depends on where you live. In my neck of the woods, burner phones are illegal. It's (nominally) impossible to get a phone number without getting ID verification. This applies to physical sims, but also to online services à la Twilio.

Re: Google's most ridiculous trick to force users into adding phone number

#23

Post by pessimizer »

markdown wrote: post #13
jqpabc123 wrote: post #7

I guess I'll just have to stop using google. Welcome to the club. The fastest way to convince me *not* to use a product is to attach a "Google" label to it. Nothing Google has to offer justifies the drawbacks. NOTE: I do use an Android phone --- but only after it has been thoroughly de-Googled --- starting from a stripped down, bare metal device that won't even power up.

HN needs a bot that posts an inb4 comment every time there's a post about Google or a Google product. These predictable responses don't add any value whatsoever, and they're tiring to read.

You don't think your comment constantly gets posted as a reply?

Re: Google's most ridiculous trick to force users into adding phone number

#24

Post by vort3 »

ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #15

Every new feature from Google is a middle finger to their users, then you get some corporate double speak about how it's all well and good and how it makes the product better. Get a Fastmail account, I got one after I got tired of google breaking my IMAP settings every other week. They're cheap, they have most everything you'd need from an email provider, and they don't require a special app like proton.

I think if I'm gonna pay for using email, I'll just try to get any cheap VPS/domain and try to run my own email. It'll be more expensive for sure, but at least it will be my own thing I'm paying for.

Re: Google's most ridiculous trick to force users into adding phone number

#25

Post by QuikAccount »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #7

I guess I'll just have to stop using google. Welcome to the club. The fastest way to convince me *not* to use a product is to attach a "Google" label to it. Nothing Google has to offer justifies the drawbacks. NOTE: I do use an Android phone --- but only after it has been thoroughly de-Googled --- starting from a stripped down, bare metal device that won't even power up.

> NOTE: I do use an Android phone --- but only after it has been thoroughly de-Googled --- starting from a stripped down, bare metal device that won't even power up.

You're going to have to explain to me. Particularly the "starting from a stripped down, bare metal device that won't even power up. Because this sounds excessive and a bit over the top.

Re: Google's most ridiculous trick to force users into adding phone number

#26

Post by sergiotapia »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #7

I guess I'll just have to stop using google. Welcome to the club. The fastest way to convince me *not* to use a product is to attach a "Google" label to it. Nothing Google has to offer justifies the drawbacks. NOTE: I do use an Android phone --- but only after it has been thoroughly de-Googled --- starting from a stripped down, bare metal device that won't even power up.

I bought Pixel phones for my wife and I because the price and ease of use to save my kids pictures was absolutely worth it.

I haven't found a service that functions as well as Google Photos. She takes pics and I take pics, and we have a shared account that backs it all up without any messing about. I have done precisely ZERO tech support for my wife since buying this service and phones and I will probably never leave.

Re: Google's most ridiculous trick to force users into adding phone number

#28

Post by [deleted] »

sergiotapia wrote: post #26
jqpabc123 wrote: post #7

I guess I'll just have to stop using google. Welcome to the club. The fastest way to convince me *not* to use a product is to attach a "Google" label to it. Nothing Google has to offer justifies the drawbacks. NOTE: I do use an Android phone --- but only after it has been thoroughly de-Googled --- starting from a stripped down, bare metal device that won't even power up.

I bought Pixel phones for my wife and I because the price and ease of use to save my kids pictures was absolutely worth it. I haven't found a service that functions as well as Google Photos. She takes pics and I take pics, and we have a shared account that backs it all up without any messing about. I have done precisely ZERO tech support for my wife since buying this service and phones and I will probably never leave…

[deleted]

Re: Google's most ridiculous trick to force users into adding phone number

#29

Post by TheDong »

From your perspective, you're looking at a change that impacted you.

From google's perspective, they're looking at a change which reduces phishing and scams by some small percent, and impacts a minuscule fraction of their users.

Abuse, scams, phishing, and forgotten passwords are all significant problems which phone numbers help with. I'd be willing to bet these changes end up having an on net positive impact for google's users.

How many phishers do you think will be stopped by removing an insecure login flow? How many people do you think want to use insecure apps, but don't have a phone number and refuse to login to their google account on their phone?

Re: Google's most ridiculous trick to force users into adding phone number

#30

Post by Szpadel »

im3w1l wrote: post #18
vort3 wrote: post #6

It's not even about not willing to spend 1$ for a random phone number. Here's a list of things that are wrong with what Google does: - If you want to read your email, you have to use app specific password. I'm ok with that. - You can't generate app specific passwords if you don't have 2FA enabled. That's some artificial limitation made to force you into adding phone number to your account. - You can't use authenticat…

> That's some artificial limitation made to force you into adding phone number to your account. Agreed > You can't use authenticator app to enable 2FA. I have no idea why SMS which is the least secure way to send information is a primary method and authenticator app which can be set up by scanning QR from the screen without sending any information at all is «secondary» and can only be used after you give your phone n…

not only lost phone, but damaged phone is enough, as you can easily swap sim card but authenticator need to be set up again. BUT there are also one time recovery codes, they could add you option to use those to recover after clicking through few screens of warnings to make sure that you know what consequences does it have
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