Google locked me out of my account for not giving them my phone number. Even though I used the correct password. Even though I verified myself through the recovery email, which has been the same for ages. Even though I wasn’t using a VPN or connecting from a public network. Even though there was no reason to think my account or credentials were compromised.
They are, in fact, extorting phone numbers from people.
Thankfully, I don’t depend on my google account for anything, but I’m still stuck receiving spam forwarded by gmail, because I can’t log in to turn off forwarding. (I’ll probably have to filter it out at some point.) I honestly hope they just delete my account after some months without a phone number.
I still have a Gmail account but I’m trying better solutions… Maybe my own hosted system. Whether I pay google or a hosting company with open source software is the same money, the latter means privacy
Can confirm.
Google locked me out of my account for not giving them my phone number. Even though I used the correct password. Even though I verified myself through the recovery email, which has been the same for ages. Even though I wasn’t using a VPN or connecting from a public network. Even though there was no reason to think my account or credentials were compromised.
They are, in fact, extorting phone numbers from people.
Thankfully, I don’t depend on my google account for anything, but I’m still stuck receiving spam forwarded by gmail, because I can’t log in to turn off forwarding. (I’ll probably have to filter it out at some point.) I honestly hope they just delete my account after some months without a phone number.
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Clearly.
Whatever excuse they might have doesn’t change the fact that they are extorting phone numbers from people.
2 years and it’ll be deleted.
I still have a Gmail account but I’m trying better solutions… Maybe my own hosted system. Whether I pay google or a hosting company with open source software is the same money, the latter means privacy
Get your own domain and use migadu.com. The starter plan is $20/year.
For extra privacy get a domain in .de, .be, .fr, or .nl, their registries protect owner data automatically.
If you’re also looking for a registrar check out INWX.