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It proves you are not a bot? The account recovery procedure is usually via a secondary email account or saved backup codes.

I know this because I have a friend who's prone to getting himself locked out and I have become his personal tech support guy (not willingly).

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I understand the measures they have to go to to stop bots, but Google have more than enough data to know these accounts are not bots (they have years' of browsing history and whatever other hooks they use on Chromeos). Unfortunately these accounts were created years ago and I assumed 'recovery options' would only be required if I forgot my password (which I never would). Beginner's mistake.

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