6 ms·

Ah right, account recovery. The one that tells me the only way to sign in to my old Google account is to use a phone that no longer exists.

by lopis 3y ago

jasonjayr 3y ago
or to fax/email/send in government identity documents.
- lopis 3y ago
  No, have a Google account that is locked forever without recourse. Even though I have email forwarding setup in that account to my main one.
- lxgr 3y ago
  Despite what many companies seem to believe, looking at a copy of somebody's identification presented remotely documents does not constitute identity verification. Photo ID is (relatively) secure in exactly one use case: Verifying that a person standing in front of you is who they claim to be. Everything else is inane pseudo-security.
Eumenes 3y ago
Google has notoriously horrible customer service, or none at all ... A Google Domains issue took me months to resolve, I couldn't contact a human.
tshaddox 3y ago
What’s the standard then? Should it be possible to recover your account without possessing any evidence whatsoever that you are the person you say you are?
- gomox 3y ago
  Given your response you should read up on the reality of Google Account recovery, because the usual horror story is not that you have "no evidence whatsoever" but more like "I have all the evidence in the world including recovery codes, TOTP backups and a valid password and somehow I'm still locked out".
- soulofmischief 3y ago
  I'm willing to bet Google already has a frighteningly accurate ability to determine whether I am associated with or own a particular account.
  - Macha 3y ago
    I've been locked permanently out of a (thankfully tertiary) Gmail account because their ML didn't like that I logged in from my new house. The option was to accept a push notification to a long dead and wiped phone.
    - TheNewsIsHere 3y ago
      Their state handling for the push notification based MFA factors is _atrocious_. I have had to “re-delete” a long wiped phone (or two) multiple times from more than one account. It seems to have finally stuck in the past year, but I’m suspicious that one day it could bite me in the ass.
- kube-system 3y ago
  Other businesses have humans on staff which will verify your identity documents. Google simply chooses not to do this, because it is expensive, and their "users" are not their customers.
  - threatofrain 3y ago
    Right, then you can just pay for Google's rather affordable non-free business version. Then you'll get reasonable support, well-reputed support.
    - cube00 3y ago
      I get a call from Google One Support. I explain the situation. They tell me to go to g.co/recover to recover my account (I already did this on my own). Same thing happens as before - same two options are given. Then I'm told Google has a very strict security policy, and accounts cannot be changed in any way by support. So going through the recovery process is the ONLY way back into my account. So the call ends with them saying "I'm so sorry I can't help you." [1] [1]: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-you-get-locked-out-your-google-account-what-do-desirea-calvillo/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-you-get-locked-out-your-...
  - px43 3y ago
    They have offered this since 2017, in response to the Podesta email hack. It's free, but it's not the default, because traveling to a Google site is prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of their users. https://landing.google.com/advancedprotection https://landing.google.com/advancedprotection
    - kube-system 3y ago
      Is there something there that explains how the recovery process is different? The only thing I see in the FAQ is somewhere that they link to the normal account recovery page, and say that you'd have to order another hardware token.
  - lxgr 3y ago
- shinycode 3y ago
  If you travel in an other country and loose your phone or the phone gets stolen. How can you log into Gmail from anything else if you need access to travel or anything else ? Like receiving a confirmation of identity by email from the bank or another service ?
  - mr_mitm 3y ago
    You can't, that's the point.

Ah right, account recovery. The one that tells me the only way to sign in to my old Google account is to use a phone that no longer exists.

by lopis 3y ago

Ah right, account recovery. The one that tells me the only way to sign in to my old Google account is to use a phone that no longer exists.

jasonjayr 3y ago

or to fax/email/send in government identity documents.

lopis 3y ago
No, have a Google account that is locked forever without recourse. Even though I have email forwarding setup in that account to my main one.
lxgr 3y ago
Despite what many companies seem to believe, looking at a copy of somebody's identification presented remotely documents does not constitute identity verification. Photo ID is (relatively) secure in exactly one use case: Verifying that a person standing in front of you is who they claim to be. Everything else is inane pseudo-security.

Eumenes 3y ago

Google has notoriously horrible customer service, or none at all ... A Google Domains issue took me months to resolve, I couldn't contact a human.

tshaddox 3y ago

What’s the standard then? Should it be possible to recover your account without possessing any evidence whatsoever that you are the person you say you are?

gomox 3y ago
Given your response you should read up on the reality of Google Account recovery, because the usual horror story is not that you have "no evidence whatsoever" but more like "I have all the evidence in the world including recovery codes, TOTP backups and a valid password and somehow I'm still locked out".
soulofmischief 3y ago
I'm willing to bet Google already has a frighteningly accurate ability to determine whether I am associated with or own a particular account.
- Macha 3y ago
  I've been locked permanently out of a (thankfully tertiary) Gmail account because their ML didn't like that I logged in from my new house. The option was to accept a push notification to a long dead and wiped phone.
  - TheNewsIsHere 3y ago
    Their state handling for the push notification based MFA factors is _atrocious_. I have had to “re-delete” a long wiped phone (or two) multiple times from more than one account. It seems to have finally stuck in the past year, but I’m suspicious that one day it could bite me in the ass.
kube-system 3y ago
Other businesses have humans on staff which will verify your identity documents. Google simply chooses not to do this, because it is expensive, and their "users" are not their customers.
- threatofrain 3y ago
  Right, then you can just pay for Google's rather affordable non-free business version. Then you'll get reasonable support, well-reputed support.
  - cube00 3y ago
    I get a call from Google One Support. I explain the situation. They tell me to go to g.co/recover to recover my account (I already did this on my own). Same thing happens as before - same two options are given. Then I'm told Google has a very strict security policy, and accounts cannot be changed in any way by support. So going through the recovery process is the ONLY way back into my account. So the call ends with them saying "I'm so sorry I can't help you." [1] [1]: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-you-get-locked-out-your-google-account-what-do-desirea-calvillo/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-you-get-locked-out-your-...
- px43 3y ago
  They have offered this since 2017, in response to the Podesta email hack. It's free, but it's not the default, because traveling to a Google site is prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of their users. https://landing.google.com/advancedprotection https://landing.google.com/advancedprotection
  - kube-system 3y ago
    Is there something there that explains how the recovery process is different? The only thing I see in the FAQ is somewhere that they link to the normal account recovery page, and say that you'd have to order another hardware token.
- lxgr 3y ago
shinycode 3y ago
If you travel in an other country and loose your phone or the phone gets stolen. How can you log into Gmail from anything else if you need access to travel or anything else ? Like receiving a confirmation of identity by email from the bank or another service ?
- mr_mitm 3y ago
  You can't, that's the point.