4 ms·

One example I can give is from a few years ago. I was in a car crash where my phone was destroyed. It was around 2 AM and I was about 500 meters from my office.

One example I can give is from a few years ago. I was in a car crash where my phone was destroyed. It was around 2 AM and I was about 500 meters from my office. I went there to use the stationary office phone to call my wife, but I didn't know her number. I thought I could check my Google account and tried to log in with my personal account. I had never logged in with my account at my workplace before. Of course, Google deemed this suspicious and asked me to confirm with an SMS to my destroyed phone or to open it and click "Allow" in the notification. The only phone that was not changed in years was my mother's number, and I called her instead because this was the only phone I was able to recall. After that I moved completely out of google and now I use Nextcloud for my contacts.

ghaff 4y ago
You're really describing a more general problem though. Imagine you hadn't been 500 meters from your office. Maybe you're in some city you don't really know and you no longer have your phone. You may not even know where you're staying because information is on the web somewhere. Google or not, it's a good idea to have generally important information or information pertinent to a particular trip accessible in some way that isn't tied to a phone.
- vladvasiliu 4y ago
  > Google or not, it's a good idea to have generally important information or information pertinent to a particular trip accessible in some way that isn't tied to a phone. This is what I always do. Print hotel address, general route to the place, tickets, etc. There are too many ways for a phone to become unusable and not knowing where I can sleep is not the kind of stress I want to deal with when in a foreign place.
- unethical_ban 4y ago
  That's the point. The user didn't (willingly) opt in to 2fa for new logins! That Google can't imagine a scenario like the one above is maddening.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Many financial institutions and others (including some that aren't obviously sensitive) regularly and randomly want to send you an SMS to confirm your identity.
- Habgdnv 4y ago
  I now remember both my wife and my mother's phone, but this is a problem with people that are used to their devices keeping that information. I remember my mother's phone from the time when our house phone was without display and phonebook. Her number is like 20 years old since the introduction of cellular networks. You can experiment and try to recall your brother's or sister's number or cousin maybe? Chances are that you like most people write it in your device and never check even a single digit after that. What I wanted to describe is not my stupidity that I count on google. I wanted to describe that I use my account every day to purchase some useless apps in the playstore, but in the most unexpected moment when I needed the account for something a bit serious I was locked out. I don't want to make this comment long and and philosophical. And it is not rant. Just sharing my view of the story like everybody else.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Oh, you're absolutely right about phone numbers. I know my GF's probably mostly because I've written it in enough times as an emergency contact. But no idea of my brother's or dad's. You come to rely on a phone, a credit card that works, etc. At least when traveling I've learned to take steps to mitigate the risk when those assumptions fail. But the assumptions sometimes break down in the worst possible way.

ghaff 4y ago

You're really describing a more general problem though. Imagine you hadn't been 500 meters from your office. Maybe you're in some city you don't really know and you no longer have your phone. You may not even know where you're staying because information is on the web somewhere. Google or not, it's a good idea to have generally important information or information pertinent to a particular trip accessible in some way that isn't tied to a phone.

vladvasiliu 4y ago
> Google or not, it's a good idea to have generally important information or information pertinent to a particular trip accessible in some way that isn't tied to a phone. This is what I always do. Print hotel address, general route to the place, tickets, etc. There are too many ways for a phone to become unusable and not knowing where I can sleep is not the kind of stress I want to deal with when in a foreign place.
unethical_ban 4y ago
That's the point. The user didn't (willingly) opt in to 2fa for new logins! That Google can't imagine a scenario like the one above is maddening.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Many financial institutions and others (including some that aren't obviously sensitive) regularly and randomly want to send you an SMS to confirm your identity.
Habgdnv 4y ago
I now remember both my wife and my mother's phone, but this is a problem with people that are used to their devices keeping that information. I remember my mother's phone from the time when our house phone was without display and phonebook. Her number is like 20 years old since the introduction of cellular networks. You can experiment and try to recall your brother's or sister's number or cousin maybe? Chances are that you like most people write it in your device and never check even a single digit after that. What I wanted to describe is not my stupidity that I count on google. I wanted to describe that I use my account every day to purchase some useless apps in the playstore, but in the most unexpected moment when I needed the account for something a bit serious I was locked out. I don't want to make this comment long and and philosophical. And it is not rant. Just sharing my view of the story like everybody else.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Oh, you're absolutely right about phone numbers. I know my GF's probably mostly because I've written it in enough times as an emergency contact. But no idea of my brother's or dad's. You come to rely on a phone, a credit card that works, etc. At least when traveling I've learned to take steps to mitigate the risk when those assumptions fail. But the assumptions sometimes break down in the worst possible way.