Hacker News Reader

Comment by sushirain | Hacker News Reader

It is NOT true that I can avoid opening a Google Plus/Facebook account, and thus protect my privacy.

Google/Facebook has been striving to integrate the public account with many important services. Google/Facebook are a monopoly/very dominant in email, social networks, navigation, smartphones, etc. Some online services already require a Google/Facebook account. Your social media account determines your credit score[1], or can get/deny you a job position. This is going to get more widespread.

A social media account has become mandatory, and the law should step in to protect our privacy and safety.

[1] http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230477310...

View on HN

I would not betrust anybody with my money who forced me to have a Google/Facebook/whatev account.

You can have your employer use Google services and consequently require you to create a Google account.

You mean google apps? They give you one as part of it.

What's to stop you from creating a Google account specifically for that purpose? Worked for me.

Yeah just make a Google+ account for work. And when Google asks for your real name, and nobody at works knows you're transgender, what do you do? Put in your legal name that's still set to your old gender? Put in your new name that Google rejects because it doesn't match the name on your phone bill / credit card / whatever. Put in a fake name and wait until your account gets deleted?

> Put in your new name that Google rejects because it doesn't match the name on your phone bill / credit card / whatever.

This is the part that confuses me -- granted, my Google account for work has my legal name on it, and I don't have to deal with a mismatch between that and the name I go by. But I have several throwaway Google accounts, and have never had my real name turn up on any of them. Is this purely because I don't associate them with my phone number, and don't use them for e.g. purchases in the Play Store or whatever? Are you saying that, if I did that with a throwaway account, I'd suddenly find that it had ceased to be a throwaway, and had my legal name and suchlike associated with it? Pardon my confusion -- it's just that I'm astonished at the idea of Google, or indeed anyone, pulling a trick like that. Is that actually what goes on?

Agreed.

If something requires Facebook/Google plus/Twitter/whatever to login, I go somewhere else.

You're being hyperbolic. Neither is mandatory. Your linked article seems to be implying that the information one willingly makes public on social media is the problem for some credit decisions, and the latter part of that article seems to be concerned with businesses with specific online components. Interesting ideas, but a distraction from the topic at hand.

Which banks require facebook?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com