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Ask HN: Has Google figured out you gave them a fake date of birth?

Way back when, as a privacy preservation measure, I set up the account with an off-by-one birth date. Today, on attempting to log in to Gmail, I was blocked at a screen claiming Your date of birth is missing. This information is needed to comply with the law. I figure this happened because Google learned the true date, by other means. Anyone else seeing this?

stevage 6y ago
I have seen that message on one of my Gmail accounts, but it didn't actually block me I think.
- jqpabc123 6y ago
  If it doesn't actually block you, they are simply checking for consistency. If you do not provide a consistent DOB, they will know you're faking it and may block you later.
rzzzwilson 6y ago
I got it as well. Can't remember if I ever gave Google any birthdate but, no matter, another fake birthdate works fine.
- mogoman 6y ago
  perhaps give a consistent fake birth date (rather than a random one)
  - 2Gkashmiri 6y ago
    Ive been giving out 1.1.1990 for years now. Makes it easy to remember even after a long time
jqpabc123 6y ago
Never give anyone your real DOB without a proven need to know. The key to using a fake DOB is consistency. Use some simple formula to be able to reproduce your fake DOB on demand. If you can't do this, if you use different DOBs, Google will obviously know your date is fake. As an example, here is what I do to create a consistent DOB for my fake online persona. Swap month and day (instead of May 10th, I use Oct. 5th) then reverse the last 2 digits of year. My formula obviously won't work for you if the resulting date is invalid so develop your own. For example, you could subtract X from year, month and day. Or use your mother/wife's month and day with your year. Anything will work as long as you can remember and reproduce it. My online persona also uses a different spelling variation of my name. Once again, consistency is the key to not eventually being rejected or banned.
- slim 6y ago
  Or simply chose 1st january 1970 as your date of birth
  - nielsbot 6y ago
    ha.. that's what I do too.. Guess it's not unique.
    - ntnlabs 6y ago
      Soooo many people were born on that day ;)
      - Crosseye_Jack 6y ago
        Valve reported in 2013 that 93% of its users were born on January first. I’m not sure it’s related but I find it amusing > January 1, 2021 Minus 9 Months Would Be: April 1, 2020 News just in 93% of PC gamers born because of April Fools Joke gone wrong. Yeah I’m sure that’s it ;-)
  - jqpabc123 6y ago
    Google is a data driven company. They know based on nothing but sheer statistics that this date is most likely fake. Why make it easy for them to identify fake data?
- dkarras 6y ago
  Why would you need an algorithm if you are not going to use something like the service name as a seed (so each service gets their own DOB - which might not be necessary)? Just pick a year, and pick a day. Use it.
  - jqpabc123 6y ago
    Just pick a year, and pick a day. Use it. As I said, "Anything will work as long as you can remember and reproduce it." I find that I tend to forget purely random dates over time so I prefer a semi-random date based on something I will not forget. It's just a memory trick, I forget meaningless dates but I don't forget simple privacy algorithms. Your mileage may vary.
csunbird 6y ago
What law requires Google/an email company to know your exact DoB?
- xenomachina 6y ago
  Supposedly COPPA.
sunsipples 6y ago
as a tech savvy 93/98/109/138 year old man/woman/undisclosed in this security focused world we live in, I have yet to be quizzed by any provider of online services to verify my A/S/L other than that one time your mother was in IRC
pestatije 6y ago
What about your name? Have they figured out you gave them a fake name?
Tepix 6y ago
Every UNIX affinado ought to use 1970-01-01 as the DOB (the start of epoch).
- majewsky 6y ago
  What about 1991-09-17? The first public release of Linux would make a good DoB as well, and does not look as deliberately-chosen as 1970-01-01.
  - Tepix 6y ago
    Nah. They will see 1970-01-01 and suspect that it's not your real DOB but what if it is? There's nothing they can do about it really.

stevage 6y ago

I have seen that message on one of my Gmail accounts, but it didn't actually block me I think.

jqpabc123 6y ago
If it doesn't actually block you, they are simply checking for consistency. If you do not provide a consistent DOB, they will know you're faking it and may block you later.

rzzzwilson 6y ago

I got it as well. Can't remember if I ever gave Google any birthdate but, no matter, another fake birthdate works fine.

mogoman 6y ago
perhaps give a consistent fake birth date (rather than a random one)
- 2Gkashmiri 6y ago
  Ive been giving out 1.1.1990 for years now. Makes it easy to remember even after a long time

jqpabc123 6y ago

Never give anyone your real DOB without a proven need to know. The key to using a fake DOB is consistency. Use some simple formula to be able to reproduce your fake DOB on demand. If you can't do this, if you use different DOBs, Google will obviously know your date is fake. As an example, here is what I do to create a consistent DOB for my fake online persona. Swap month and day (instead of May 10th, I use Oct. 5th) then reverse the last 2 digits of year. My formula obviously won't work for you if the resulting date is invalid so develop your own. For example, you could subtract X from year, month and day. Or use your mother/wife's month and day with your year. Anything will work as long as you can remember and reproduce it. My online persona also uses a different spelling variation of my name. Once again, consistency is the key to not eventually being rejected or banned.

slim 6y ago
Or simply chose 1st january 1970 as your date of birth
- nielsbot 6y ago
  ha.. that's what I do too.. Guess it's not unique.
  - ntnlabs 6y ago
    Soooo many people were born on that day ;)
    - Crosseye_Jack 6y ago
      Valve reported in 2013 that 93% of its users were born on January first. I’m not sure it’s related but I find it amusing > January 1, 2021 Minus 9 Months Would Be: April 1, 2020 News just in 93% of PC gamers born because of April Fools Joke gone wrong. Yeah I’m sure that’s it ;-)
- jqpabc123 6y ago
  Google is a data driven company. They know based on nothing but sheer statistics that this date is most likely fake. Why make it easy for them to identify fake data?
dkarras 6y ago
Why would you need an algorithm if you are not going to use something like the service name as a seed (so each service gets their own DOB - which might not be necessary)? Just pick a year, and pick a day. Use it.
- jqpabc123 6y ago
  Just pick a year, and pick a day. Use it. As I said, "Anything will work as long as you can remember and reproduce it." I find that I tend to forget purely random dates over time so I prefer a semi-random date based on something I will not forget. It's just a memory trick, I forget meaningless dates but I don't forget simple privacy algorithms. Your mileage may vary.

csunbird 6y ago

What law requires Google/an email company to know your exact DoB?

xenomachina 6y ago
Supposedly COPPA.

sunsipples 6y ago

as a tech savvy 93/98/109/138 year old man/woman/undisclosed in this security focused world we live in, I have yet to be quizzed by any provider of online services to verify my A/S/L other than that one time your mother was in IRC

pestatije 6y ago

What about your name? Have they figured out you gave them a fake name?

Tepix 6y ago

Every UNIX affinado ought to use 1970-01-01 as the DOB (the start of epoch).

majewsky 6y ago
What about 1991-09-17? The first public release of Linux would make a good DoB as well, and does not look as deliberately-chosen as 1970-01-01.
- Tepix 6y ago
  Nah. They will see 1970-01-01 and suspect that it's not your real DOB but what if it is? There's nothing they can do about it really.