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Comment by danso | Hacker News Reader

> Google too does some really funny things to make it nearly impossible to create and maintain an anonymous accounts not tied to a phone number.

Well yes, these kind of accounts are highly susceptible to being bot accounts. What obligation does Google have to be the place for people's free, anonymous accounts? In any case, I haven't had a problem with the number of secondary accounts I've created that are tied to me only by another email address (which can point to another provider, like Yahoo).

> BTW, it is worth noting that the impact of a compromised account isn't nearly as significant if a single account doesn't hold keys to pretty much everything you do online. Somehow this is rarely factored in during such discussions.

How should this be factored into the current discussion? The use of JS is to ostensibly make it more difficult for automated hijacking to prey on users.

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This is true. Google has explicitly never put the user first. We should be grateful to give them our information in the first place in the way they deem is best.

Sorry if I don't agree that giving Google a throwaway email address is a significant concession of personal information. Which free services do you recommend that do things better?

You can't give it a throwaway email address - they want your phone number now and will accept nothing less in my experience.

If that doesn't appear true for you, try over Tor and you'll see what happens to many people...

I am surprised to see a long thread about nothing. Google does force you to give them your phone number and they do not let you register new emails after you hit some limit.

I just tried creating a new account from a VPN, using a browser that I haven't used to log into Google previously. It allowed me to create a new account without a backup phone or email, and allowed me to send an email.

How does Google know you've hit a limit when you've registered new emails? And, not to belabor the point, but why should they be expected to give you unlimited number of free accounts -- or, what service do you recommend that will be that generous?

I mean they could accept my cash instead of offering a service paid for with your information.

Oh that’s right, they’ll never give the consumer power over their data because that’s google’s entire value proposition.

So, don't use google, and run your own DNS that returns 0.0.0.0 for all google tlds. I mean, I'm all about having some responsibility at the corporate level, and people working for companies showing ethics.

But this is just cringe worthy. How do you propose getting your cash to said company? I mean, most methods will leak personal information the company could then use anyway.

The moment you try to login from another location, they will lock you out and ask you to enter a phone number, which from that point forward will be tied to your account.

I am not 100% whether they use geolocation, or just trigger this when your new IP doesn't match the last IP you logged in with.

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