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Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure

tech.vijayp.ca

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Re: Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure

#241

Post by creshal »

leviathan wrote: post #228
incompatible wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I've heard, that it's difficult to get a human involved if you have a problem with Google's free products. The article says "Eventually, with the help of Google’s customer support and some ex-colleagues who still work at Google, Bob was able to get his account back." For the average person who doesn't have ex-colleagues who still work at Google, or who's name isn't Linus Torvalds, it will be far more difficult.

I keep hearing this, but here's my anecdote. I signed up for AdWords a long time ago and created a test campaign just to see what it looks like, but never completed the process, so I didn't have a payment method entered. Fast forward till start of this year, I created an AdMob account to put ads in one iOS game I have, and apparently as soon as I entered my credit card info, the old AdWords campaign started running a…

Adwords is the only Google product to have dedicated support staff… and they're working on commission. Of course they're going to haunt you until the end of the world.

Re: Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure

#242

Post by clarry »

givinguflac wrote: post #108
eveningcoffee wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did it. Then they banned it. Having my phone number or any other hard identifier is none of Googles business.

I have a google account without a phone number, but it's always been that way so they probably aren't going to ban me... I hope at least until I finish migrating

They could lock you out of your account and require your number before letting you log in again. Any day.

Happened to me.

Re: Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure

#244

Post by maccard »

yann63 wrote: post #236
abandonliberty wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're a product, not the customer. How well do we treat most livestock? I recently realized Windows 10 is going the same way and unfortunately it's much harder to not use your OS than Google or FB, and impacts your ability to use other purchased software.

> it's much harder to not use your OS than Google or FB I think the exact opposite. Using Linux instead of windows 10 is easy. But not using any google service can be pretty difficult. Good news, there are some initiative to "ungoogle" the internet, such as Framasoft.

What particular google services do you rely on that can't be replaced? I'm using fastmail for mail & calendar services, duckduckgo for search, firefox instead of chrome, sync rather than google drive.

Re: Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure

#245

Post by arjie »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #46
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #7

>Eventually, with the help of Google’s customer support and some ex-colleagues who still work at Google, Bob was able to get his account back. I bet I know which one of these resources was more important.

I bet I know which one of those resources actually exists .

People give Google a lot of shit, but how about paying for service you want? If you do, you get http://imgur.com/a/Udvn6.

Re: Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure

#246

Post by TorKlingberg »

throw7 wrote: post #96

Google seems to think phones are very secure: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/183723 Why mobile phones are more secure Your mobile phone is a more secure identification method than your recovery email address or a security question because, unlike the other two, you have physical possession of your mobile phone.

Being more secure than a security question is a very low bar.

Re: Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure

#247

Post by fghgfdfg »

maccard wrote: post #244
yann63 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's much harder to not use your OS than Google or FB I think the exact opposite. Using Linux instead of windows 10 is easy. But not using any google service can be pretty difficult. Good news, there are some initiative to "ungoogle" the internet, such as Framasoft.

What particular google services do you rely on that can't be replaced? I'm using fastmail for mail & calendar services, duckduckgo for search, firefox instead of chrome, sync rather than google drive.

I've had terrible experiences with duckduckgo. I really want to switch, but I've never been able to justify the costs. Every now and then I give it a shot but the results from DuckDuckGo just aren't there. Sometimes they aren't even in the ballpark of what I'm looking for, while Google nails it - what I want specifically is in the top 3, and the whole rest of the first page is related.

I don't know if this is because Google and DuckDuckGo require different phrasing of terms to do well and I'm just highly adapted to Google, or if it's something I can't help.

Re: Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure

#248

Post by geomark »

degenerate wrote: post #230
leviathan wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep hearing this, but here's my anecdote. I signed up for AdWords a long time ago and created a test campaign just to see what it looks like, but never completed the process, so I didn't have a payment method entered. Fast forward till start of this year, I created an AdMob account to put ads in one iOS game I have, and apparently as soon as I entered my credit card info, the old AdWords campaign started running a…

AdWords is "different" because if your account has an issue, they aren't getting lots of your money. So their support is actually pretty good with AdWords. The rest of their services, the support is pretty bad (such as Google Apps), and their free services may as well have zero support.

My anecdote: I was brought in to help with an AdWords campaign for an ecommerce site. I did some keyword research, ran some small campaigns to get some CTR and conversion metrics, then kicked off a bigger campain, pruning keywords as needed to ensure CTR stayed up and we didn't get a low CTR slap on the account which results in CPC skyrocketing. It was chugging along at a pretty good ROI. At that point I turned it over to the person who is named as the contact on the account with instructions on how to keep it running. A couple days later they got a call from someone at Adwords offering to "help", and they recommended turning on display ads. A few days of that and the CTR had plummeted, CPC prices had skyrocketed, and ROI tanked and the account was ruined - couldn't get a decent CPC due to the CTR hole that had been dug.

Thanks Adwords support.

Re: Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure

#249

Post by josefresco »

"there's not even a phone number to call or an e-mail address unless it's a paid product"

Well duh. What kind of support should Google offer to almost a billion users that pay nothing for the service?

"(and even then, they've got a less-than-stellar reputation for support of paying customers)."

Not from my experience. Have had to call them a handful of times on behalf of clients. A human always picked up quickly, and resolved my issue or answered my question. Also followed up.

Re: Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it less secure

#250

Post by _pmf_ »

incompatible wrote: post #142
exelius wrote: post #12

> I'm curious [...] why Google doesn’t temporarily disable accounts so impacted until a human reviews activity. Because Google doesn't have humans reviewing anything unless there's a direct link to marginal revenue/cost avoidance attached to that interaction that can be priced in. Their business model is to achieve scale through automation and machine learning; which means not doing things that would require manual i…

So I've heard, that it's difficult to get a human involved if you have a problem with Google's free products. The article says "Eventually, with the help of Google’s customer support and some ex-colleagues who still work at Google, Bob was able to get his account back." For the average person who doesn't have ex-colleagues who still work at Google, or who's name isn't Linus Torvalds, it will be far more difficult.

> So I've heard, that it's difficult to get a human involved if you have a problem with Google's free products.

Nobody claims it's difficult; it's impossible via official channels. You have to make a scene on Twitter, so obviously if you value your time and reputation you just switch providers instead of being "one of those people".

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