People are raising really good points here, but I do find it interesting how negatively this news is being received vs. when Apple said the same thing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31643917
> Unless I can back it up and import it into a new device from a competitor, then there is no way I am going to use this unless forced. I do not trust one company anymore.
Which is the same sentiment as this thread. The first comment was just talking about the open standard of Apple's implementation and weakness of 2FA loss/recovery.
So if you get a mob of people all reacting the same way to something, who, upon examination, have arrived at their conclusion for a smattering of contradictory and inconsistent reasons, it can be a helpful point of information for diagnosing the irrational mob response.
Granted it's not always the case, people get to similar beliefs through different reasons.
But these are two phenomena that exist side by side and there are times when it's necessary and helpful to be able to diagnose the first.
Especially when that company is Google.
You believing $company is not as bad as Google definitely has nothing to do with marketing!
If it can be backed up, then a casual bystander/process can also "back up", filch all of your credentials in a few moments with you being none the wiser.
The protocol is open, so I can use one proprietary key from company A, one from company B, and a few open source keys. Keep one for regular use and the rest as backups.
Now I'm not sure whether they can help you unlock your Apple ID if you prove to them that you're the owner of the account, but I can at least visualize Apple having the scale to do that.
Google on the other hand has a horrendous reputation for locking out people out of their accounts totally and permanently. Of course everyone has concerns about handing all your account login responsibilities to a company with such terrible customer service.
As an Apple user I find this as frustrating as it is wise. Mostly for future-me who may one day not be as savvy and manage to screw myself.
I don’t fully trust iCloud Keychain and Apple to never lose my data in a “I don’t concern myself with backups” manner. So I opt for using Passkeys where I can also add my FIDO2 tokens.
It’s not as “you’re on your own” as some products I’ve owned.
Google's customers are mostly the people that get to show you ads. So they don't seem to care about even the paying users for their products. And it's sad that Apple seems to be going the way of trying to be an ad platform as well.
> Google on the other hand has a horrendous reputation for
Neither are true nor false but definitely exaggerations. All you're doing is displaying personal biases by providing them with benefit-of-the-doubts. They too have a reputation for locking people out, and are well known for turning data over, but one that HN in gernal prefers to ignore.
Google does not kill services. That does not happen. Google definitely does not deplatform people killing all their accounts and all their access. That also does not happen.
Apple will happily tell you that if you want grandma to have a whatever color text bubble, you should buy her an iPhone, to name a recent example, rather than adopt the standard everyone else is using. I bought a Macbook last holiday season and couldn't even set it up until my wife set up her iPhone on my account to activate the laptop. I bought my wife a iWatch last week and briefly thought of getting myself one but you can't use it without an iPhone (they have a "kids" feature where a parent can activate it but it basically has no smarts at that point AFAIK).
So, for making an authentication standard, I'd trust Google over Apple.
I have no idea what you mean by this. You do not need, and have never needed, to own an iPhone to use an Apple computer.
> I bought my wife a iWatch last week and briefly thought of getting myself one but you can't use it without an iPhone...
This, on the other hand, makes a little more sense. The Apple Watch is designed as a companion device to an iPhone. Much of its functionality relies upon the phone (e.g. displaying notifications from the phone, installing watch apps which pair with corresponding phone apps) -- it can't do much on its own.
If you want to go on a hike while leaving your (distracting) phone behind, you can. Just don't expect 911 unless you have the GPS+cellular version.
If pre-installed and configure, it’s still convenient for things like wallet/Apple Pay, esp when I do dumb stuff like forget my wallet and phone at home and need to pay for things.
You do not need an account or an iPhone, this makes no sense to me. Was this purchased new from a retail store?