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I was all enthusiastic about G+ for about 5 minutes - until they wouldn't allow my wife to sign up without giving them her phone number, and proving that it was

I was all enthusiastic about G+ for about 5 minutes - until they wouldn't allow my wife to sign up without giving them her phone number, and proving that it was hers by accepting a call from them. Just who the fuck do they think they are?? There is no way I could suggest my friends and family sign up to such an intrusive service, so I quickly deleted my own account. It's an absolutely stunning achievement to create a web-site that's even more offensively intrusive than Facebook. I hope Google are proud.

venportman 13y ago
Without a phone number, how are they going to know where you are at all times? Without knowing where you are at all times, how will they give the NSA what they want more than anything?
- cpeterso 13y ago
  I know you are probably joking, but the phone number would enable Google to link your Google Plus account to your Android phone (assuming you haven't already logged into Google Plus on your Android device to use the Play Store).
- n09n 13y ago
  They don't need a number for that. You already read gmail and watch youtube on your phone..
true_religion 13y ago
To be fair, Yahoo does the same thing now adays. And facebook also will opportunistically ask for phone verification when its scrubbing system thinks you might be creating a 'fake' account.
- AsmMAn 13y ago
  I don't use any Yahoo device anymore (not because spy, I ended up with Yahoo much before) but what are Yahoo doing with user's data?
  - true_religion 13y ago
    No idea, but Yahoo has tried about 3 times to create a social network but it always dies in its infancy. Likely they'll try again for #4.
- alextingle 13y ago
  Sure FB want to know your telephone number, but they don't prevent you from using their service if you can't/won't give it to them.
antr 13y ago
Amen, google has turned into a genuine identity thieve. a few months ago, i think it was primarily driven by the whole prism thing, i decided to create a bogus google account, using a disposable phone number. Now I have a three google accounts: personal (for email), work (email, google apps, drive, adwords, etc), and my bogus account (a 70+ year old lady using google search, youtube and the rest of the google crapware like google+). this type of business, unilateral decisions are what made microsoft a "hated" company back in the late 90s, early 2000s. google isn't what it used to be, now it's a company packed with great engineers with managers making poor decisions.
- yuhong 13y ago
  this type of business, unilateral decisions are what made microsoft a "hated" company back in the late 90s, early 2000s. It was a lot more than that.
  - rahoulb 13y ago
    Maybe, but once trust starts to erode, the effects of it may not be seen for a few years. And once lost it's extremely difficult to get back. I certainly get the feeling that Google's halo is slipping.
    - davidgerard 13y ago
      During the nymwars, I saw techies moving to Bing for search. Bing for search! That's when you know your brand is going toxic.
      - dredmorbius 13y ago
        I'm considering Hotmail over Gmail. I you how much the thought pains me. Though I'll likely end up with a smaller provider somewhere. Gandi.net or Sonic.net both have very strong pro-privacy and freedom reputations.
- kordless 13y ago
  Let me see if I understand you: The revelation of the NSA's activities made you fearful and so you decided to make fake Google accounts with fake phone numbers to alleviate those fears. All from the same IP address? How exactly does this help keep your identity safe? Because they don't have your phone number tied to your account? How many times have you put your phone number in your emails to people? I looked, and over the last year I've sent my number to people over 150 times. I used to have it in my sig. How many people do that? It seems like you and others are fearful of Google's actions because you are fearful of the government's actions. Remember, Google freaked out about PRISM, and the result was them encrypting traffic between their data centers to PREVENT the government from spying on your data: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/googlers-say-f-you-to-nsa-company-encrypts-internal-network/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/google...
joyeuse6701 13y ago
Wait wait wait, so your issue was that she'd have to accept a call? As in, have to talk to someone? As in, perform one of the most basic human interactions that is part of what makes us human? And that offends your senses to the point that you consider it intrusive? How antisocial are you? Who do you think YOU are that you can't have a simple chat with another human being. Are you the king of England? Le Roi? Is Google the proverbial peasant under your patronage and must request an audience with you after many prose describing your illustrious magnanimity ordained by God? Get over yourself.
- Sssnake 13y ago
  Yes, google is one guy who is really lonely and just wants to talk. He calls you up to chat if you sign up for google+.
- CamperBob2 13y ago
  So... what's your phone #?
  - joyeuse6701 13y ago
    three two three 90 five four two 59
    - joicew 13y ago
      (323) 905 - 4259 ? Or do you believe when you give your phone number to Google, it's obfuscated, not indexed or searchable, and not permanently associated with you for their current or future use? Next step - has anyone confirmed your identity yet?
      - bobbydavid 13y ago
        I was unpleasantly surprised to see your post deliberately undoing the GP's attempt to obfuscate his number. Is your goal to bully GP into supporting privacy? It doesn't matter the technical details of whether the number is easier to search, it's the intent I find disturbing about this.
kordless 13y ago
> Just who the fuck do they think they are?? They think they are Google - you know, the guys that made the Internet searchable. I'm pretty sure they know what they are doing. Call verification is used by many services to establish ownership of an account, and to provide a fallback mechanism that automates the recovery of an account. Google likes to automate the shit out of things. This is no different. I hear that you are angry about their policies, but I really don't hear why you are angry other than it's 'intrusive'. Are you afraid they are going to do something horrible with your phone number but not your searches? Do you have similar concern and passion for what the NSA has done? Are they related to each other?
- sitharus 13y ago
  > Call verification is used by many services to establish ownership of an account, and to provide a fallback mechanism that automates the recovery of an account. Google likes to automate the shit out of things. This is no different. I've been using the internet for well over a decade now. The number of services I've signed up for must be in the hundreds. I've never had to verify my identity unless a monetary transaction has been carried out, and then it's to my bank rather than the merchant. Nothing I get from Google+ needs any confirmation of my real identity.
  - kordless 13y ago
    > Nothing I get from Google+ needs any confirmation of my real identity. Now we're getting to the nut of the real argument.
    - css771 13y ago
      I think the problem comes from the fact of treating Google+ like any other social network like Facebook. Google+ is supposed to be an identity layer for all of Google. The fact that they have status update posting, etc is secondary. Google would like to assign a face, name and phone number to every Google account. And why is that? For various reasons. A face and a name is very valuable for targeted ads. And a phone number associated with every Google account will help Hangouts. Maybe it will enable sending SMS from the web to any phone and also Voice users can cal from the web from their Google account. Thus, Google achieves their aim of disrupting the carriers and making the phone number irrelevant. That's just the way I see it anyway.
brownbat 13y ago
> Just who the fuck do they think they are?? One of the leading services targeted by account generation farms to launch spam.
- alextingle 13y ago
  Go on, tell me how you send spam e-mail through Google+.
  - vdaniuk 13y ago
    1. Post in public groups 2. Comment on popular posts. 3. Comment on popular pages and accounts. 4. Spam hashtags Enough?
  - brownbat 13y ago
    Sure, Gmail was the target. Google's approach to verification was formed before G+ existed, though it's been tweaked since. They're unlikely to reinvent account verification from scratch for each of their products though.
dboyd 13y ago
> even more offensively intrusive than Facebook Not sure if that statement is specifically related to your wife having to "provide a phone number", but... Facebook does the same thing.
- alextingle 13y ago
  No, they don't. FB want to know what your number is, but they don't prevent you from using their service if you can't/won't give it to them.
  - dboyd 13y ago
    I tried to create an account the other day and they explicitly required a mobile phone number they could send an SMS too. I suspect that different people see different behavior.

venportman 13y ago

Without a phone number, how are they going to know where you are at all times? Without knowing where you are at all times, how will they give the NSA what they want more than anything?

cpeterso 13y ago
I know you are probably joking, but the phone number would enable Google to link your Google Plus account to your Android phone (assuming you haven't already logged into Google Plus on your Android device to use the Play Store).
n09n 13y ago
They don't need a number for that. You already read gmail and watch youtube on your phone..

true_religion 13y ago

To be fair, Yahoo does the same thing now adays. And facebook also will opportunistically ask for phone verification when its scrubbing system thinks you might be creating a 'fake' account.

AsmMAn 13y ago
I don't use any Yahoo device anymore (not because spy, I ended up with Yahoo much before) but what are Yahoo doing with user's data?
- true_religion 13y ago
  No idea, but Yahoo has tried about 3 times to create a social network but it always dies in its infancy. Likely they'll try again for #4.
alextingle 13y ago
Sure FB want to know your telephone number, but they don't prevent you from using their service if you can't/won't give it to them.

antr 13y ago

Amen, google has turned into a genuine identity thieve. a few months ago, i think it was primarily driven by the whole prism thing, i decided to create a bogus google account, using a disposable phone number. Now I have a three google accounts: personal (for email), work (email, google apps, drive, adwords, etc), and my bogus account (a 70+ year old lady using google search, youtube and the rest of the google crapware like google+). this type of business, unilateral decisions are what made microsoft a "hated" company back in the late 90s, early 2000s. google isn't what it used to be, now it's a company packed with great engineers with managers making poor decisions.

yuhong 13y ago
this type of business, unilateral decisions are what made microsoft a "hated" company back in the late 90s, early 2000s. It was a lot more than that.
- rahoulb 13y ago
  Maybe, but once trust starts to erode, the effects of it may not be seen for a few years. And once lost it's extremely difficult to get back. I certainly get the feeling that Google's halo is slipping.
  - davidgerard 13y ago
    During the nymwars, I saw techies moving to Bing for search. Bing for search! That's when you know your brand is going toxic.
    - dredmorbius 13y ago
      I'm considering Hotmail over Gmail. I you how much the thought pains me. Though I'll likely end up with a smaller provider somewhere. Gandi.net or Sonic.net both have very strong pro-privacy and freedom reputations.
kordless 13y ago
Let me see if I understand you: The revelation of the NSA's activities made you fearful and so you decided to make fake Google accounts with fake phone numbers to alleviate those fears. All from the same IP address? How exactly does this help keep your identity safe? Because they don't have your phone number tied to your account? How many times have you put your phone number in your emails to people? I looked, and over the last year I've sent my number to people over 150 times. I used to have it in my sig. How many people do that? It seems like you and others are fearful of Google's actions because you are fearful of the government's actions. Remember, Google freaked out about PRISM, and the result was them encrypting traffic between their data centers to PREVENT the government from spying on your data: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/googlers-say-f-you-to-nsa-company-encrypts-internal-network/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/google...

joyeuse6701 13y ago

Wait wait wait, so your issue was that she'd have to accept a call? As in, have to talk to someone? As in, perform one of the most basic human interactions that is part of what makes us human? And that offends your senses to the point that you consider it intrusive? How antisocial are you? Who do you think YOU are that you can't have a simple chat with another human being. Are you the king of England? Le Roi? Is Google the proverbial peasant under your patronage and must request an audience with you after many prose describing your illustrious magnanimity ordained by God? Get over yourself.

Sssnake 13y ago
Yes, google is one guy who is really lonely and just wants to talk. He calls you up to chat if you sign up for google+.
CamperBob2 13y ago
So... what's your phone #?
- joyeuse6701 13y ago
  three two three 90 five four two 59
  - joicew 13y ago
    (323) 905 - 4259 ? Or do you believe when you give your phone number to Google, it's obfuscated, not indexed or searchable, and not permanently associated with you for their current or future use? Next step - has anyone confirmed your identity yet?
    - bobbydavid 13y ago
      I was unpleasantly surprised to see your post deliberately undoing the GP's attempt to obfuscate his number. Is your goal to bully GP into supporting privacy? It doesn't matter the technical details of whether the number is easier to search, it's the intent I find disturbing about this.

kordless 13y ago

> Just who the fuck do they think they are?? They think they are Google - you know, the guys that made the Internet searchable. I'm pretty sure they know what they are doing. Call verification is used by many services to establish ownership of an account, and to provide a fallback mechanism that automates the recovery of an account. Google likes to automate the shit out of things. This is no different. I hear that you are angry about their policies, but I really don't hear why you are angry other than it's 'intrusive'. Are you afraid they are going to do something horrible with your phone number but not your searches? Do you have similar concern and passion for what the NSA has done? Are they related to each other?

sitharus 13y ago
> Call verification is used by many services to establish ownership of an account, and to provide a fallback mechanism that automates the recovery of an account. Google likes to automate the shit out of things. This is no different. I've been using the internet for well over a decade now. The number of services I've signed up for must be in the hundreds. I've never had to verify my identity unless a monetary transaction has been carried out, and then it's to my bank rather than the merchant. Nothing I get from Google+ needs any confirmation of my real identity.
- kordless 13y ago
  > Nothing I get from Google+ needs any confirmation of my real identity. Now we're getting to the nut of the real argument.
  - css771 13y ago
    I think the problem comes from the fact of treating Google+ like any other social network like Facebook. Google+ is supposed to be an identity layer for all of Google. The fact that they have status update posting, etc is secondary. Google would like to assign a face, name and phone number to every Google account. And why is that? For various reasons. A face and a name is very valuable for targeted ads. And a phone number associated with every Google account will help Hangouts. Maybe it will enable sending SMS from the web to any phone and also Voice users can cal from the web from their Google account. Thus, Google achieves their aim of disrupting the carriers and making the phone number irrelevant. That's just the way I see it anyway.

brownbat 13y ago

> Just who the fuck do they think they are?? One of the leading services targeted by account generation farms to launch spam.

alextingle 13y ago
Go on, tell me how you send spam e-mail through Google+.
- vdaniuk 13y ago
  1. Post in public groups 2. Comment on popular posts. 3. Comment on popular pages and accounts. 4. Spam hashtags Enough?
- brownbat 13y ago
  Sure, Gmail was the target. Google's approach to verification was formed before G+ existed, though it's been tweaked since. They're unlikely to reinvent account verification from scratch for each of their products though.

dboyd 13y ago

> even more offensively intrusive than Facebook Not sure if that statement is specifically related to your wife having to "provide a phone number", but... Facebook does the same thing.

alextingle 13y ago
No, they don't. FB want to know what your number is, but they don't prevent you from using their service if you can't/won't give it to them.
- dboyd 13y ago
  I tried to create an account the other day and they explicitly required a mobile phone number they could send an SMS too. I suspect that different people see different behavior.