Gmail wants my phone number?

[Frets]

I've had no need for a gmail account till recently. I had forgotten all the details of my last one.

So I signed up for a new account. Filled out all the forms and on the last page I got the big disclaimer allowing me to choose voice or text to phone security code.

Call me paraniod but no. Google may not have my phone number under any circumstances. I don't care what they promise.

[cancerinform]

I think the phone number in this country is something like a signature or verification of your identity. They probably want to make sure that you are not a terrorist misusing their email.

[Flashock]

You may want to try registering using google chrome.
Verification may be skip.

[joshstrike]

I don't have a web phone and people think I'm nuts. I watch girls I know get dumped by their boyfriends for being geotagged out with the wrong dude, I watch my buddies stick their face in some stupid app for hours while they should be looking at girls across the bar.

What I do have, though, is a cheap old GSM phone from a foreign country, (without GPS) and half a dozen SIM cards in fake names.

Ahh and y'know what's interesting, try getting a 3G card in Australia if you're not a resident. MAN is that difficult. You literally have to get a chest X-ray, followed by a permit, then a bank account and permanent address with a utility bill, all within the first two weeks of arrival, to qualify for a plan. Can be done, though. And again, it doesn't take a terrorist.

[gerbick]

I don't have a web phone and people think I'm nuts. I watch girls I know get dumped by their boyfriends for being geotagged out with the wrong dude...

This **** really happens. Really?

[Frets]

I'm not surprised. Women aren't good at cheating, If a guy is suspicous, he'll find a way to verify it before he does something like dump her.

[pdonna]

I am beginning to think all these free applications cost too damn much.

[joshstrike]

This **** really happens. Really?

Yeah man. Happened to a good friend of mine a couple weeks ago...and her boyfriend isn't even a particularly suspicious guy. It was the fact that she'd been tagged by this other dude twice in two or three days in different places. She didn't even realize she'd been tagged.

Afterwards, I was making my case for living off the grid to her. Why she doesn't need that stupid GPS tracking device she calls an iPhone, and why it isn't worth being on Facebook. What's funny is, she defended the whole concept to me, that it's like a bigger mind forming out of many parts, and it's good. I said it's like joining the Borg and she said, "the what?"

And she's only like 3 years younger than me. *sigh*.

[WannaBe_80z]

Go live in a cave.

[silverx2]

are you really surprised a girl didnt know what the borg was?

[Frets]

Resistance is futile.

Corrected

[joshstrike]

Do you all use googlesharing?

[gerbick]

...the fact that she'd been tagged by this other dude twice in two or three days in different places. She didn't even realize she'd been tagged....

Out of context... this sentence made me giggle.

But seriously. Wow.

[Frets]

@josh
I don't.

[ChaseNYC]

just going to throw it out there... I think if google wants to know you're number they could get it without you telling them.

as far as I've seen, the asking for a number has been an optional security feature. I also noticed facebook does something very similar with new accounts.

[Frets]

Doubful. It's a prepay. Paid cash for the prepay cards. I don't even use my atm card within a mile of the place. And I don't use a loyalty card when I purchase cards.

[Loyal Rogue]

I foolishly signed up for both adsense and adwords accounts in the beginning of the Google revolution and made mad profits.
Little did I know the price I actually paid for the privilege...

I am sure that somewhere in the fine print I must have given them the consent for the DNA samples they took from me in the middle of the night while they implanted the anal probes, tracking devices, and neural network recorders, along with the hidden microscopic cameras around my house, vehicles, and workplace... ow... my brain is starting to hurt...
...must... stop... thinking... bad... thoughts... about... master... to.... stop.... pain....

[ChaseNYC]

Doubful. It's a prepay. Paid cash for the prepay cards. I don't even use my atm card within a mile of the place. And I don't use a loyalty card when I purchase cards.

Any of your friends have a google phone with your name and number in their contacts?

[Frets]

My Dad and my brother have my cell number, they have blackberries. That's it.

[gerbick]

My Dad and my brother have my cell number, they have blackberries. That's it.

I got your number. I'll post it up later today.

Jokes. But seriously... worried about privacy and you have a computer, an e-mail service that you don't host yourself, access to the web, and have entered and/or registered something (software, forum, etc.) online too; you've already given up a slight bit of your privacy. Sure, nobody wants to give 100% of their privacy away; however to truly leave yourself out of the loop, you'll have to have avoided a lot of stuff starting with the infiltration of cellphones and e-mail back in the 90's.

At the same time... nobody wants you to be foolish either and give all of that precious info away. Well, nobody but the companies that can profit from it or the governments that want to track you even more.

Paranoia though isn't cool.