5 ms·

>"I would have, had I only known!" log into Google giant banner appears "Hey, is this still your phone number? If it's not you better change it otherwise we

>"I would have, had I only known!" log into Google giant banner appears "Hey, is this still your phone number? If it's not you better change it otherwise we can't recover the account!" click 'no' change it to a new one done.

hooby 4y ago
People still fall through the cracks.
- ElCheapo 4y ago
  Yes, and people still fall through literal cracks and die every day. You can't force people to be truthful online, just like you can't fill up every crack on the Earth with cement. If I ask you to confirm you haven't changed your number and you outright lie then I'm sorry but it is what it is.
  - mistercheph 4y ago
    Why would anyone willingly and knowingly do business with someone like you? This attitude is wildly inappropriate both in formal, business relations, and in private, social ones. To treat someone like that is something that should bring a person to bury their head in their hands out of shame.
    - ElCheapo 4y ago
      What attitude? Asking your clients to be truthful in exchange for a mutually trustful relationship?
      - mistercheph 4y ago
        Shoving yet another banner in the user's face that is styled like every other banner ad you place in their way, including the one that begs you to download chrome or to sign up for google's latest service does not constitute a meaningful attempt to communicate with the customer. And the customer's blind dismissal of yet another annoying banner does not constitute dishonesty. It is completely disingenuous to frame this as though Bob walked up to Alice after lunch and asked her "Has the phone number you used for authentication changed?" and she lied and said "No". And it seems obvious that in most cases, users that lose access to 2FA methods are not asked "has your 2FA changed?" while they still have access to the account. It is far more likely that one day their cookies are reset or google decides it's time to reauthenticate and they realize that they changed their phone number when they switched phone plans a week ago, and they hadn't thought about the consequences.
  - account42 4y ago
    Well if someone falls through a literal crack IRL then there will be emergency services ready to try to get them out and we don't just say they shouldn't have been absent minded so now they get to rot down there. And if a particular crack swallows up multiple people then we won't say that's life but find ways to fix that crack (probably even after the first person).
McDyver 4y ago
It doesn't matter if you have a reminder, a banner, someone going to your door to ask you to confirm. If you miss that step, because you're in a hurry, your kid pressed the button while you looked away, or whatever, you shouldn't be immediately locked out of your whole life without recourse. We allowed ourselves to be held hostages by these companies, but we should know better now.
- ElCheapo 4y ago
  Google periodically puts that banner at full display when you log in. Even if you miss it one or two times it will come again. If you are so incompetent as to ignore a clear security warning that many times then you are responsible for your own actions.
  - mistercheph 4y ago
    How would someone be logging in if their current, valid 2FA is no longer accessible?
  - prometheon1 4y ago
    > that many times If you're already logged into Chrome and logged into your phone, it might take a few years before you get to "many times"
  - hooby 4y ago
    You don't know how this person lost their number. How quickly they lost access to it. What actually happened. Maybe the last time this banner appeared, they still had their number. Maybe things just co-coincided with the worst possible timing. Stuff like that can happen. I'm really not comfortable calling them completely incompetent over this. Also there have been reports of people getting locked out for no fault of their own as well. And those people too have no chance to do something about it. But even if it is incompetence or gross negligence - as a software company, you'd still want people to be able to report that stuff happening, so that at least you get statistics that you can use to measure the effectiveness of any improvements you try to make. If those problems occur so frequently that it's no longer financially feasible for you to actually look into them... then maybe there's some incompetence going on at your own side, right?
mrzool 4y ago
If only. An old phone number of mine is still somehow tied to my Google account. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to remove it. Google sometimes randomly decides to send the access code to my old number, which I no longer have, instead of using the new one. The only solution when that happens is to try the login again from an incognito window, hoping the Google decides to use the right number. Getting locked out someday is a very real possibility for me.

hooby 4y ago

People still fall through the cracks.

ElCheapo 4y ago
Yes, and people still fall through literal cracks and die every day. You can't force people to be truthful online, just like you can't fill up every crack on the Earth with cement. If I ask you to confirm you haven't changed your number and you outright lie then I'm sorry but it is what it is.
- mistercheph 4y ago
  Why would anyone willingly and knowingly do business with someone like you? This attitude is wildly inappropriate both in formal, business relations, and in private, social ones. To treat someone like that is something that should bring a person to bury their head in their hands out of shame.
  - ElCheapo 4y ago
    What attitude? Asking your clients to be truthful in exchange for a mutually trustful relationship?
    - mistercheph 4y ago
      Shoving yet another banner in the user's face that is styled like every other banner ad you place in their way, including the one that begs you to download chrome or to sign up for google's latest service does not constitute a meaningful attempt to communicate with the customer. And the customer's blind dismissal of yet another annoying banner does not constitute dishonesty. It is completely disingenuous to frame this as though Bob walked up to Alice after lunch and asked her "Has the phone number you used for authentication changed?" and she lied and said "No". And it seems obvious that in most cases, users that lose access to 2FA methods are not asked "has your 2FA changed?" while they still have access to the account. It is far more likely that one day their cookies are reset or google decides it's time to reauthenticate and they realize that they changed their phone number when they switched phone plans a week ago, and they hadn't thought about the consequences.
- account42 4y ago
  Well if someone falls through a literal crack IRL then there will be emergency services ready to try to get them out and we don't just say they shouldn't have been absent minded so now they get to rot down there. And if a particular crack swallows up multiple people then we won't say that's life but find ways to fix that crack (probably even after the first person).

McDyver 4y ago

It doesn't matter if you have a reminder, a banner, someone going to your door to ask you to confirm. If you miss that step, because you're in a hurry, your kid pressed the button while you looked away, or whatever, you shouldn't be immediately locked out of your whole life without recourse. We allowed ourselves to be held hostages by these companies, but we should know better now.

ElCheapo 4y ago
Google periodically puts that banner at full display when you log in. Even if you miss it one or two times it will come again. If you are so incompetent as to ignore a clear security warning that many times then you are responsible for your own actions.
- mistercheph 4y ago
  How would someone be logging in if their current, valid 2FA is no longer accessible?
- prometheon1 4y ago
  > that many times If you're already logged into Chrome and logged into your phone, it might take a few years before you get to "many times"
- hooby 4y ago
  You don't know how this person lost their number. How quickly they lost access to it. What actually happened. Maybe the last time this banner appeared, they still had their number. Maybe things just co-coincided with the worst possible timing. Stuff like that can happen. I'm really not comfortable calling them completely incompetent over this. Also there have been reports of people getting locked out for no fault of their own as well. And those people too have no chance to do something about it. But even if it is incompetence or gross negligence - as a software company, you'd still want people to be able to report that stuff happening, so that at least you get statistics that you can use to measure the effectiveness of any improvements you try to make. If those problems occur so frequently that it's no longer financially feasible for you to actually look into them... then maybe there's some incompetence going on at your own side, right?

mrzool 4y ago

If only. An old phone number of mine is still somehow tied to my Google account. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to remove it. Google sometimes randomly decides to send the access code to my old number, which I no longer have, instead of using the new one. The only solution when that happens is to try the login again from an incognito window, hoping the Google decides to use the right number. Getting locked out someday is a very real possibility for me.