Google to require mobile phones for Gmail signup?
Update: We've released a new post with more information here:
Gmail SMS verification: details, reasons and stuff to try
In our office today we noticed a strange occurrence. While signing up for a new gmail account we were told that in order to verify the account we need to give Google a mobile phone number, so that they could send us an SMS verification. Aghast we tried again.
On further attempts the message vanished. Sign up proceeded as usual.
A little more research found the following in their help section:
If you'd like to sign up for a Gmail address, you need to have a mobile phone that has text-messaging capabilities. If you don't have a phone, you may want to ask a friend if you can use his or her number to receive a code. Also, if you know someone who already has a Gmail address, you can ask them to email an invitation to you.
One of the reasons we're offering this new way to sign up for Gmail is to help protect our users and combat abuse. Spam and abuse protection are two things we take very seriously, and our users have been very happy with the small amount of spam they've received in Gmail. We take many measures to ensure that spammers have a difficult time sending their spam messages, getting these messages delivered, or even obtaining a Gmail address (spammers will often use many different addresses to send spam). Sending invitation codes to mobile phones is one way to address this, as the number of addresses created per phone number can be limited.
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Will Google keep or use my mobile phone number?
Google will use your phone number to send an invitation code in a text message to your phone. In doing so, we store each phone number to make sure it is used to create a limited number of accounts. Your number will also be associated with your account to avoid unnecessary future verifications for other Google services. For more information, please review the Gmail Privacy Policy: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/privacy.html. In accordance with this policy, your number will never be sold or shared for marketing purposes without your permission, nor will we contact you using this number without your express permission.
Obviously the intent of this is to prevent mass email signups, but we can't help but wonder if there is some deeper purpose to all this. With Google's push into the mobile market recently—with hosts of mobile apps, phone oriented services like latitude, and of course Google Android—the integration of mobile phone numbers with Google accounts may be part of a broader integration of mobile phones and Google services.
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"Your number will also be associated with your account to avoid unnecessary future verifications for other Google services. "
I am starting to doubt this as a functional means of spam prevention. All one would need to do is sign up for an online SMS service (sometimes only requiring a one time setup fee) and get a host of new accounts. Of course, Google could ban you by phone number, but even then...
from creating multiple accounts but on a side effect
will probably frighten those who want to keep their privacy and
don't feel like providing their phone numbers to a company
which is well known for making a business out of people's
private information.
I think they're just testing it. They'll see how many people are a willing to sign up, then decide their next course of action based on that.
Asking a friend, "Hey man, let me use your number to sign up for something."-if your friend is not familiar with google accounts and stuff they would be like, "yeah....right....."
IDK....I just don't like the idea of this.
He said he hadn't logged in a for a while but ... so what?
I use gmail account(s) every day and I would be a bit stuck of they did this to me.
Yet there is no way I would want to give them my personal phone number.
I am surprised there hasn't been more response to this. People just let things happen...
seriously.. i dont even have a mobile phone for christ sake!
if i was going to ask my friend to borrow his phone, then it would be his google account! not mine..
Sooner or later google will be asking for Your Home Address.. I'd rather have a hotmail email.. there staff actually listen to you.. all google cares about
is money. i dont even think i want to log in to my youtube account anymore.. theres to many changes..
If it's only for business, well, that's okay, coz i don't usually get temp on that. But if it's other scary stuff....well, i mean, not that I killed someone or is planning a terrorist attack etc.
In some places (may be not North America), when you register for yahoo, they require your phone number, and also "passport number" and your "id number". And I think that is as scary or may be even scarier.
I'm wanting to make a youtube account, but i can't unless i have a google account, and i get this and i don't want to give my mobile number, i just want to know if this actually costs anything, or if there's any way though it, thanks
wordpress...is it free? And as easy to use as blogger?
Further, if you just want to try it you can create a wordpress account and they'll host your blog for you at [name].wordpress.com (like Blogger).
Hell that sucks
worked for me :)
You can create multiple accounts with one number. You don't need individual numbers for each account. Similarly Google themselves say that you can sue your friends phone, or what not.
gmail
hotmail
yahoo
and ?
other suggestion?
if someone dont need a mobile number please can you tell in which country?
(maybe korea or afgahnistan or what? :)) )
is there a work around?
is there a free service to recive SMS over internet?
maybe skype or similar?
if people get a invite by others who allready have a gmail do they still need a mobile?
i am not willing to give them my phone!
is there a pedition against this evil monopole tactics by google?
i know alleady zoho-writer similar to google-writer but i like it more
is there a alternative to gmail and maybe better then them?
how can i stich youtube, mail, blog, office, and so on together without google or just without mobile?
i got YT account with it i did login to google and so i got the google account
with youtube writer and all
but no mail
allways if i click on gmail it asks me to register
name name login pass secretquestion
then on the next site again mobile number
and the reload trick seems not to work after maybe 100 reloads :(
how to get aroud this???
how to recive sms over internet without mobile?
gmail sucks since 2009
Also, looks like Google has removed the part of their FAQ saying: "if you know someone who already has a Gmail address, you can ask them to email an invitation to you. " so I'm afraid that work around no longer... well... works.
use firefox or similar and foxyProxy-addon (or similar)
choose a free proxy in a non-SMS country ... (maybe canada or india)
go to mail.google.com maybe with httpS://
fill out the nasty form
with some lucke there will be no borring SMS vertify page but a congratulation page ;)
some other thoghts about the google SMS crap...
never give out your mobile number to anyone in internet!
every child knows this ... google excluded :p
i am sure there exist allready pages looking like a google registration form which are phishing phne numbers :))
so google is now in the similar security level as maybe myspace :(
a other thing
they say its against spam..
a comercial spam company will (as ever) create a fictive company buy some SMS lines which they never pay and register some hundert gMail accounts... they will also buy stolen SIMcards to do such things if they are less professional
so google is pushing crime higher but doing exactly nothing against spam
they only threaten the honest users with this SMS vertification thing and in the other hand they give reason to crime and blackmarket
and...
most people think its against terrorism
thats the most stupid thing ever
a terrorist will never use a registered mobile ... they will rob a mobile... if they have it 1munute or maybe 24 howrs is enough
they will register gMail accounts with stolen mobiles and after registration they will throw the mobile away
and...
google is suggesting that people should maybe use a friends mobile..
with that they kick in every door and invite everyone to abuse everyone in every way!
for example you borrow your mobile to 20 people they all register a gMail account
all the vertificationCodes which will never change as google sais are on your mobile!
after years you can use this code to vertify your self as google says ... so after years you can hiJack 20 gMail accounts
maybe the accounts of your class mates which you never see again ... maybe the account of your girlfriend if you get jealous
the vertification code is in your mobile so the account is in your hand also if you maybe borrow it temporarly to someone
a other case ... you go to internet coffee ... someone ask you to borrow him your mobile for gMail.. maybe your a friendly person and the guy looks nice so you borrow him your mobile
some days later the CIA will come and taser you and put you to guantanamo
you did nothing wrong you did only borrow your mobile to a terrorist
so in fact google is not doing anything against spam or terrorism!
they are only doing something against honest users
and they invite people tho HiJack the accounts by others
thats one of the woerst faults in the whole history of internet ever!
this google SMS crap is somewhere on the same level like the old iLoveYou.vbs virus shit!
google is totaly failing!
to be honest i dont think it was googels idea to do such nonsence!
i more think it is a order by CIA or NSA to track terrorists
what a miracle if they fail all the time on tracking anything
maybe they realy think a terorist will go to a shop show up his passportnumber and buy a mobile with his name to register a gMail account and send some plutonium (or so) to korea or binladen
everyone with vaccum in his head can say that they eat toomuch fastfood :))
so in short...
never give out your number to anyone!
if you let other people register with your mobile you can hiJack them
if you register with someones else mobile he can hiJack you
if you borrow your mobile to criminals you will go to gitmo
if you like to stay on the safe side move to gmx.net or mail.yahoo.com or maybe hotmail just dont throw your mobile number into the internet!
or use a proxy in a country which terrorist activities .. there they dont check your SMS
until now i know india and maybe canada (someone said canada is working again without SMS)
I was 'silly?' I use my gmail name to get a blog with the same name and receive spam.
I tried to use hotmail to create a blog in blogger, but found out someone already using my hotmail address to register at google. So i follow the google help, and reset the password. Then as they suggested, i went to 'my account' to manage my account'. And I found out someone has use my account to register for 'check out' service. I want to delete the service, so I click edit, but i found out i cannot do it without deleting my google account.
So now even I am able to delete the 'check out' service, I also worry about what that 'someone' has done in 'check out' service, when using my google account. I worry what he/she did will put me in trouble.
And google really piss me off, I tried to look for help or email them, but it keep going circle and circle.
I checked out wordpress as you suggested, but they said you need a web host, and I don't know what's a web host, i don't think i have one.
http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/request...=
you open a account
until you get to the sms vertification shit of crap site
then you should see some where a link where you can tell them about problems ->
http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/request...=
tell them that they suck!
tell them that you dont wanna give them the number
or that you dont have a GoogleMobile phone of crap
and tell them that they fukking sukk
they can manualy unblock your account or open your account without a mobile number
contact them at the link above
google is shuting down its activities in china
they asy its because the censoring
they suggest that human right activists are supporting this
now they feel like heroes
in the other hand if you are a human right activist and you have to fear that you loose your life for your activities
for example if you are a tibetan activist in china
would you realy give your mobile number to google?
they get hacked by the chinese gov and then they will blow your mobile number up with a fkking nuke
or google will sell all mobile numbers to the chinese gov and your parents will have to pay the bullets for your dead
so google suggests how concerned they are about human rights
but in fact they threat human rights activists with theyr mobile phone vertification shit
and in fact google is entering the mobile bussines and since theyr google mobile is out they need a mobile vertification
they talk about spam and how bad censoring is
but they care a shit about all of that
they only care about theyr bu$$ine$ plan!
sarkozi should let them bleed with his new google taxes :))
and others should follow
with such tactics google will kill its self
some days ago all people were moving to google
and since this sms crap all people are moving away from google
there is hotmail gmx yahoo and many other good free mail providers
and for docs and sheets and a lot more you can also use zoho which is much better then google
and for blogging you can also use much other services
with a yahoo account you can also login to zoho.com
so its similar to google account with mail and docs&sheets
the application which trys to open 10000000 google accounts and abuses theyr verification code shit to bomb mobile phones until theyr credit is gone?
any idea?
They're requiring it to create any google account, which means Youtube registration is also out of the question. I think I might just go to megavideo, where they actually offer good video upload services anyway. I sent a message to them basically saying I wanted to register via email.
I can't even believe they're doing this! Apparently to stop spam? Why don't they just add a harder CAPTCHA or another of those classic bot capturing tricks. Y'know what happens when a spammer registers onto my website? I ban them. Simple, eh?
So angry with google right now! And yet I still see their logo on almost every website there is. When did google stop being just a good damn search engine? Why do they have to try and take over the world, eh?
That time Gmail wasn't asking for sms, but sometimes it asked. After a month, I checked my email again and it was disabled.
Who do you wanna fool, Google? Give me back my accounts now!
i don like it.
i m sure it will be passed and google ll stop that rubbish methods.
and till that time , go to hell gmail !
YOU MAKE IT SO WEBMASTERS HAVE TO GIVE YOU PRIVATE PHONE NUMBERS just so we can check WHY you f-ked us over on hits??
YOU COULD SEND TO OUR SITE DIRECTLY, through a interface of some sort. SCREW YOU!!!!
people, stop using their services, do not buy android weakened phones - they have dangerous plans to make all of us their androids. They are yet another big shameless greedy corp.
I thought "WTF is this all about?", clicked my account name in the upper right corner, and was on my channel without providing the phone number..
The problem I have with providing any real phone number, is the little chip integrated in the phone called "GPS", you give them the number, you receive the text (which is similar to the email protocol), they receive a bounce back that the number is good, then you respond to the text signing the deal, all without understanding the contract you just agreed to by responding..
I bet most of you did not change your service password and master password on your phone did you? (makes it that much simpler to remotely activate features of the phone without knowledge)..
If they ever make it mandatory, they can shove the whole system up the wahoo with a cactus sideways and a backwards pineapple shooter to boot..
phone first i logged out of my google account then went to gmail.com loged in with email nickname @gmail.com
ex:example@example.com would be example@gmail.com
then click sign up a different google acccount for gmail
sign up and it didnt ask for sms verification
Friendly advice: If you care about your privacy and internet security - STAY THE F*** AWAY FROM GOOGLE!
so they just lost one customer.