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

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

#471

Post by v20 »

ymolodtsov wrote: post #292

If you haven't created a Gmail or an Instagram account in a while you might be surprised how aggressive it is. For instance, try doing this without verifying your phone. Both can ban you right away because they had to ramp up their anti-spam protections. Pretty much everyone already have an account, so most people creating new ones are just that, spammers.

I found it curious how hard it is to create a Facebook account now, especially after struggling so much to get an old account deleted years ago.

These large companies seem to be at the point where they don't want any new users anymore. Or at least they can afford to lock some people out.

We should be way more vocal about this so the idea that "everyone has / can make a (google|microsoft|facebook|whatever) account" dies out.

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

#472

Post by jmyeet »

hedora wrote: post #324
jmyeet wrote: post #29

Everything is going to get so much worse and AI really is to blame. So many websites now have these verification pauses and CAPTCHs because of AI agents. Part of it is agents. Part of it is everyone running their own awful versions of Googlebot. Years ago IIRC there was a "bug" where the Android emulator allowed you to create real Google accounts. This was found and I'm sure millions of these accounts were created. T…

I don't understand the anti-agent blocks. What exactly is the problem if an AI agent reads your website and summarizes it for me? If it is bandwidth, why not spend the effort making a screen-reader friendly version of the site, and somehow shunt agents to that (saving 99% of the cost of serving the page)? (I run an ad blocker, so the ads will not be displayed either way, but I see more agent blockers on ad free sites…

Because people do things like this. They spin up OpenClaw and ask it "find me a computer with an RTX 5070Ti or 5080 that's in stock within 50 miles of me that I can go and pick up today".

So now the agent is crawling bestbuy.com, walmart.com, etc looking for PCs. I don't run one of these sites but I would bet the traffic looks a lot like a Web crawler and is incredibly resource-wasteful. If you were at the screen you might go and start searching for "5080" or you might go into Computers and start filtering. People just don't care if an automated agent is wasting someone else's resources.

Also, where's the ad revenue in an agent crawling your site?

It's just going to be an arms race like adblockers and CAPTCHA but it's going to be so much worse for real people who want to do anything.

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

#473

Post by nashadelic »

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 pay upwards of 200/yr for storage, the free Gmail is a funnel to revenue for them and I reckon it’s very profitable

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

#474

Post by account42 »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #423
idle_zealot wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A terribly defeatist attitude. The same could be said about, say, death during childbirth. For hundreds of thousands of years people tried methods of midwifery to ease that process and reduce deaths to little effect. People considered that to be women's lot, an immutable fact of human nature. Then we figured out how to reduce deaths during childbirth to a relatively tiny fraction of all-cause mortality, and that leve…

We have a system for improving organizations. Competition. The actual problem is that our system for preserving competition is insufficiently effective.

Competition on its own is a very bad system for improving organizations as is selects for the most ruthless and underhanded, not the best for society. Unless you can 100% ensure that companies don't externalize their costs then the company that learns how to will win the competition game.

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

#475

Post by account42 »

s1mplicissimus wrote: post #323
WalterBright wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except gmail is hardly a cartel, etc. I've never had a gmail account.

I'd assume that you also never tried running your own email server and have the email actually delivered to a gmail address, then.

YMMV but I never had issues with Gmail accepting mail from my personal server. And I didn't even do anything Gmail-specific, just standard SPF+DKIM and making sure my server is not an open relay etc.

Microsoft on the other hand...

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

#476

Post by account42 »

denkmoon wrote: post #424
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were plenty of free email services before gmail. Google isn't at fault here because they provided a better experience.

There are plenty of free email services _after_ Gmail too. If Google want to destroy their product, have at it.

There aren't any alternatives that let you keep you @gmail.com address.

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

#477

Post by account42 »

otterley wrote: post #399
p-e-w wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d say that if Google suddenly stopped providing Gmail for free, destroying the primary means of communication for billions of people, governments would be justified in immediately nationalizing Google with no compensation. Corporations aren’t magical entities that somehow exist outside of social obligations and can do whatever they want as long as their own terms of service permit it.

> Corporations aren’t magical entities that somehow exist outside of social obligations and can do whatever they want as long as their own terms of service permit it. Where's your support for this statement in the law?

The support is there by no constitution guaranteeing human-like rights for corporations, allowing lawmakers to restrict them however they see fit.

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

#478

Post by account42 »

icase wrote: post #462
idle_zealot wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a better time I would expect the government to step in a acquire this fundamental service and fund it with tax money. Right now? The only intervention I would expect is a massive subsidy to pay Google to keep providing it, while also letting them continue to spy on everyone's mail (which is a crime, but not if the mail is on a computer, I guess).

oh yes, government-run email. what could possibly go wrong

It's already called G-mail. Perfect fit.

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

#479

Post by account42 »

traviswingo wrote: post #48
torben-friis wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I can’t prove it, but it feels like the world recently decided that spamming/scamming is acceptable, so the number of spammers/scammers has increased dramatically. The number of spam calls, texts, emails, iCloud account unlock requests, etc I’ve received in the last year is insane.

It's the natural progression of hustle culture. Profit makes right, nothing else matters.

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

#480

Post by MichaelRo »

hn_acc1 wrote: post #382
MichaelRo wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They've essentially gotten roped into maintaining a huge chunk of internet infrastructure, for free. This argument would have flown 30 years ago with Yahoo. Since then we had Uber pumping so much money into a losing business until it drew the competition bankrupt. And now we have AI pumping so much money into a losing business until they hopefully replicate Uber, only won't work and signs are all over the wall that…

I find your views interesting and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. No really - got more ideas about "Don't be evil. FOR REAL"?

Don't have an online presence yet, will let you know when I add that.
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