12
exerceo
317d

Google simply can't knock off harrassing their users with security theatre.

A friend of mine has a small personal YouTube channel. He has recently been bombarded with several phone verification requests a week: "Verify it's you. To continue your session, complete a brief verification. This extra step helps us keep your account safe by making sure it’s really you. "

While frequent verifications may be understandable on YouTube channels with millions of subscribers, channels with only a few dozen subscribers are not attractive hacking targets. A verification would be justified before a potentially harmful action such as deleting videos or deleting a channel. But not for normal everyday use.

What's next? Will they ask users to "verify it's them" every ten minutes, "just for extra security"? Just to verify that it is "really, really, really, really, really" them?

It's not security. It's security theatre.

Sorry, Google, but users are not in the mood of doing a phone verification every other day.

Has this been Google's perverted wet dream all along?

Comments
  • 3
    My ISP started a mobile cell service. I signed up under a business customer promotion... they've been calling my main cell during typical business hours to get me to register the new SIM cards... it's so asinine that im genuinely considering mailing them back and saying fuck it... esp since its a totally different account/staff/system for "business" accounts. So they are literally calling people that they know own businesses, on their personal business phone number, at an undefined/surprise time, during their workday... and trying to pass it off as helpful/proactive.

    Worst part-- they are literally a COMMUNICATIONS company!
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