Gmail and YouTube are being obnoxious!

[csziggy]

I have one personal Gmail account which Google arbitrarily associated with my YouTube account some time back. Yesterday I was checking email both on my personal account and one that I administer for a non-profit. No problems switching back and forth.

Today I wanted to recommend a video that was linked here on DU so I tried to sign into my YouTube account. I got a message from Google saying there was "unusual activity" on my Gmail account and insisting that the only way I could sign in was to give them a phone number and let them text or auto call. As of last night the only "unusual activity" was that I was actually using my account for more than YouTube!

Well, Google, that is NOT going to happen. I don't want calls from Google on my landline and don't do text on the cell phone that is seldom charged or turned on. Google is pushing for "2 step verification" where I would not just enter my password, I would also have to enter a code on my phone. How could I enter a code on my landline? Since I get no cell signal at home, I would not be able to enter a code on my cell phone while sitting at my computer.

I tired creating a new YouTube account that does not use a Gmail address. YouTube arbitrarily assigned the email address as my user ID. If I don't want my email displayed for everything I do on YouTube, I have to associate the account with Google and change the user ID through Google.

I guess my days of using Gmail and YouTube are over. I may watch videos on YouTube - I will not be able to recommend them without an account. I will never be able to upload videos, either.

FU, Google.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. And you thought the NSA was the problem.

[csziggy]

2. I finally went through the "retrieve password" route

And jumped through all kinds of hoops to attempt to get back into my account. Now I'm waiting for an email from Google to see if they accept my responses. First time through, they didn't like my answers or didn't like the email account I gave them. They still wanted a phone number, but I won't give them that. Hell, Google probably already knows what phone number is associated with every email address, physical address and person who lives here!

I worry much less about the NSA than I do about corporate information gathering.

[Downwinder]

3. If Google wants you to have a phone, then they should

supply you with one.

[csziggy]

4. Good idea! Google can give me another phone to NOT answer!

Some one who didn't understand how I could live without a cell phone constantly available tried to convince me to put a booster device on my roof that would boost the signal in the house.

Why would I want to do that? The landline is bad enough. Now that I am retired, I will not answer the phone unless I want to. A better cell signal in the house would just double the possibility of someone bothering me!

[hobbit709]

5. The only reason I have a gmail account is so that I can post on youtube.

That started when youtube got bought out by google.
I don't use it for anything else.
When I first got the account gmail was flooding me with their spam-based on what I was doing on youtube. I was getting between 5-10 a day. At first I just marked them as spam and deleted them.
Then I got fed up and started forwarding all their spam to [e-mail]. All of a sudden the spam stopped.

[davepdx]

6. You can get the "unusual activity" alerts for a number of valid reasons.

For example, if someone tried to access your account from a different state or country. If someone got your access credentials (logon id and password) they could have access to your account. The 2-step authorization requires another piece of information, a numeric code that is sent to a phone of your designation. This would prevent anyone from accessing your account(s) as they wouldn't have access to this numeric code. Regarding the "unusual activity" alert, this might be helpful:

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1144110?hl=en

If you don't have access to a cell phone your landline can be used. When you authorize a new computing device you'll should only need to enter the numeric code once. If you use your landline number you'll get a robotic voice giving you either a 6 digit numeric code to enter into your browser.

https://www.google.com/landing/2step/features.html

There is a Google authenticator app for your cell phone and it doesn't require a cell signal in order to use the app. If you dead set against giving Google your landline number then try the app. It generates a new seemingly random 6 digit numeric code every minute that should be unique to your account.

Edited to add a link to get the Google Authenticator app for your particular flavor of cell phone.
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1066447?hl=en

[csziggy]

7. I read most of the so-called "Help" documents

And I understand what can cause an unusual activity alert. It was just too coincidental that after I accessed the account for more than just YouTube I suddenly got an alert.

I don't want Google calling me on my landline. Period. EVER. I hate getting calls now that I no longer run my business.

Giving anyone my cell number is futile. I get no bars or signal here at home, unless I walk out of the house and to the top of the hill where I am line of sight to a cell tower. That would be less than useful in accessing Google. Since a cell phone is not very useful to me, I have a brick for a phone. It can just barely get texts - but since I refuse to attempt to read texts on a 1" square screen, I just maintain that I can't do texts. I certainly can't/won't write any texts.

My primitive cell phone is stupid and cannot do apps. So whether or not the app needs a signal is irrelevant. I see no reason to own a "smart" cell phone since my cell gets used so little I never use up the minimal minutes I have to buy from Tracfone when I extend my contract time.

So Google will not get a telephone number from me. If using Google products online requires that they have a phone number, that will eliminate Google from things I use online. I watch YouTube videos, have a personal gmail account that is now involuntarily attached to my YouTube account, and have a Gmail account for a non-profit group I am in. I can search with Google and use Google Maps without an account. Those are the only Google things I use.

[astral]

8. I had a creepout moment with this too.

I was going to post to some comment board and it said I had to log in, one option listed was my Google account. Well, for some years now I have had a Google account, but the email I use for it is yahoo. Had to use that for youtube, and all was fine. Well so I select Google and give it my credentials but then yahoo pops up and wanted permission to 'associate' my account stuff and I clicked ok, as there didn't seem to be any way out of it, and then it demanded that there is no yahoo account associated with that email, please choose another one. Can't sign in to to Google with my Google account anymore, at least not there, so no posts from me. The email in question is a valid yahoo email address that I use. I just never signed into anything 'yahoo' except my yahoo email.

Earlier in the last couple years yahoo started demanding my secret question which i don't know, so I just open a new window to click on my inbox right after I have signed in... Because now it is demanding a phone number. To hell with that. So far so good. I have had this email since around 1998. I once gave it my phone number to get into a different account it had succeeded in blocking me from accessing unless I give them my phone number to 'ask' them to give me a password to get into my account.

Big Brother appears to be here to stay.

I predict the day will come, soon, when we will be REQUIRED to use biometrics to access our own cell phones, and computers as well, so nobody can get online at all without total surveillance of every little blink of your eye. I already had a cellphone whose screen would go black if I was using the phone if I covered that front facing camera lens with something. It has to be able to see my eyes for me to use the phone. I also had a tablet I taped the front facing camera on, because it had taken a picture when I sat down without me even touching it. When I covered the lens there was a message in the lower right corner that ______ program 'cant see your eyes.' Forgot the name of the program.

Welcome to the lovely world of android. There are plenty of us already who have been conditioned to not mind being tracked. I am not one of them. And i don't want no tablets, or phone, that insist upon gazing into my eyes.