Despite skipping through the process multiple times, Google has continued to harass me with phone number requests. How many times will I have to login and skip it before Google gets the idea? Where is the opt-out button? And yes… I know you say it’s for my own good in case I lock myself out of my account. But still, no thanks.
Even after clicking the tiny skip button, a confirmation window will appear. Are you sure about skipping? Yes Google, I am. I don’t want to phone a friend, I don’t want to ask the audience, this is my final answer!
Despite Google’s improved stance on privacy, its harassing for my number would prove otherwise. If Google requires a phone number, I’m happy to give them a fake one, but I’d prefer not to. If they require my real number, I’m happy to no longer use its services. In the famous words of billpoulin: “TO ANYONE WHO ACTUALLY WORKS FOR GOOGLE: STOP ASKING FOR MY CEL NUMBER. I AM NEVER GIVING IT TO YOU.” waiting for your reply That said, I’m going to guess there is an ulterior motive as well which has to do with mapping my online life with my mobile phone. Or perhaps its just me. :) It’s ALL part of them trying to get your information so that they can TRACK exactly who you are with your IP address, know what you’re posting and find out your real identity. I for one will NEVER give them my cell phone number.. F*** them, or I’ll simply never have another account with them.. EVER! Don’t be so NAIVE as to think it’s ONLY for supposed account security. Email address and entering in a captcha code is MORE than sufficient for this purpose. Google, like Facebook, are all run By the NSA.. WAKE UP! #justsaying There, my all-caps rage bomb has passed. As the “consumers” or users of the products and services on the net, we must (as we must for brick and mortar) demand that these purveyors sufficiently protect (even to the point where it isn’t “convenient” for us) our identities and personal information and lobby our government to seriously “hurt” those that do not. That is the only thing a person like Zuckerberg understands, a person who “moves fast and breaks things”. Revolting. I told the checkout lady at Burlington Coat Factory (they actually have a sign at the checkout about it) that I didn’t want to give my number and get a bunch of sales calls. She said they wouldn’t call but they would offer me future discounts and let me know about specials. I asked if they weren’t going to call the number then how were they going to offer all these great deals? She said they would use a program and get my address from my number. I said it’s a cell number on a business account, and I don’t want to be bombarded by more junk mail at work either. She said no one else has a problem with it. Seriously? Don’t forget however, this is an electronic world and we all leave digital footprints everywhere we go on the internet. Specifically I’m talking about credit cards and other banking cards. Not only do they know WHERE you’ve been but also what you buy, when you buy it and how many of them you’ve bought. Buying clothing? Vacation Rentals? Airline Tickets? Condoms? Tampons? Aspirin? Advil? Yeah, that’s a lot of information available to the highest bidder. Hopefully your wife doesn’t do any bidding to find out if you were alone on that last “business” trip. heheheh I donate blood regularly, and yesterday while scheduling an appointment over the phone I realized the blood bank has my email wrong — off by one letter — which would explain why I never received emails from them. It was verbally corrected, and I received a confirmation email. But today when I tried to log on to my Digital Donor account (only been there once when I created it & apparently misspelled my email addy), I couldn’t use my correct email address. When I tried to use my incorrect email address, that worked but couldn’t remember my user id. They sent a hint to the incorrect addy. Sigh. . . so, I tried to create a new gmail account using the misspelled addy, and it would not let me continue without giving a phone number to which they could send a verification code. Hitting the browser back button only kept me at the phone number page. I’ll opt to fill out the health related questions in person when I donate, rather than save some time doing it online. Maybe the blood bank can correct the problem on their end. But Google is not getting my phone number. I’m sure they already have it, so why keep bugging me or requiring it for new accounts? And what about Android? It’s my phone OS and it’s almost an obligation to have a Google account to synchronize it, and use Google Play for apps. Soooooo…. Don’t they ALREADY have my cellphone number on that account, for example? Why ask for it if I already “gave it” to them because of Android? Sorry for grammar or spelling errors. I’m out of practice with my english. I transfered my main contact mail to tutanota and proton because I can’t afford to google terrorize me under false security ‘concerns’ if I change device or number. Aaaand I just don’t want to give ’em number voluntarily. 10 years after this article is written I *”%$# google and their account ‘security’ aka privacy intrusions. Comment Name * Email *
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