Google's evil trend by dreamtrove

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Google's evil trend

POSTED BY: DREAMTROVE
UPDATED: Thursday, December 29, 2011 18:14
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Thursday, December 29, 2011 6:13 AM

Quote:

Account security changes coming: Add your mobile phone

Google is introducing additional security measures to be used when we detect a suspicious sign-in attempt for your account. By adding your mobile phone to your Google account, you'll be able to easily pass these security measures and make it much harder for hijackers. Learn more about why this is so important
Are you sure about skipping?
Adding a phone is the easiest and most effective action you can take to secure your account. Taking 30 seconds now could save you hours of worry later.
Mobile phone number

Google will only use this number for account security. We'll never share it with other companies or send you unwanted messages — ever.
Click here to skip adding a mobile phone to your account

And when you click here you get a pop-up that says "are you sure?" Because Google doesn't believe that rural people who live in places where there is no cell phone service exist.

That said, when they set this up it was anonymous. So, after you give them your phone #, they know who you are, and they're selling this by stoking up the fear?

Past the evilness of it, deal for a moment with this:

No, google, this is nonsense. People giving you their phone number does not make the site more secure, it makes it *less* secure, because now the hacker who sneaks into your account will also have your phone number.

Oh, so you're not going to give that? They'rehackers, hello? I mean, they didn't break into your account because google willingly gave them your password, we hope.

If your site is not secure, I'll just go somewhere else. You're not a monopoly.

http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1187657
That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Thursday, December 29, 2011 12:25 PM

CANTTAKESKY

I don't know if asking for your real name and number is "evil."

It is a bit suspicious.

-----
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

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Thursday, December 29, 2011 4:47 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Yet another problem masquerading as it's own solution.

Were it not for the credit reporting agencies demanding ever more detailed info to "verify your identity" under the thin excuse of "protecting you" from identity theft - AND THEN SELLING THAT INFO RIGHT TO SCAMMERS, thus feeding the cycle THEY created to begin with, such things wouldn't be a problem.

They prey on fear to get the info, then sell it to scum, who misuse it, justifying that fear by THEIR conduct, and then use that problem, of their creation - to whip up more fear to get more detailed info....

Once again, as always, your so-called protectors are in fact the actual threat.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Thursday, December 29, 2011 6:14 PM

DREAMTROVE

Frem nailed it, as usual.

Quote:
Originally posted by canttakesky:
I don't know if asking for your real name and number is "evil."

Sorry, this was an internal reference. Evil as defined by Google when they chose "Don't Be Evil" as the company motto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil

Quote:
"Don't be evil" is the informal corporate motto (or slogan) of Google,[1] originally suggested by Google employees Paul Buchheit[2] and Amit Patel[3] at a meeting. Buchheit, the creator of Gmail, said he "wanted something that, once you put it in there, would be hard to take out," adding that the slogan was "also a bit of a jab at a lot of the other companies, especially our competitors, who at the time, in our opinion, were kind of exploiting the users to some extent."

Brin has also said that evil is anything which wastes the users time or gets in the way of people trying to do what they want to do; which hijacks them; anything where you are pushing what you want over what they want.

Quote:
Criticism of Google often includes a reference to "Don't be evil".[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

Okay, I just thought that number of references was humorous for wiki. But it's true, and it's because google does things like allows companies that pay google a lot of money to be returned much earlier in search results than those that cannot, which is very often an attempted misdirection. If I'm looking for DIY Windmills I get sites on DIY Windmills, the way I always would have, but if I search on (okay, I'll confess it's not happening to me right now, google has cleaned up a little. I'm getting NIH pages and stuff. It used to be a search on health problems would reroute you to major corporations) Anyway, I don't have a good example presently, so kudos to them and the occasional "don't be evil" protest.

Anyway, point being, giving them access to my cell phone and by extension my identity is not what I as a user wanted to do, and does not enhance my user experience, rather, it hijacks it, with a veiled threat of deleting my data. Of course, I don't have a cell phone, but that's aside from the point. It fits google's self imposed definition of evil.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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