YouTube/Google want your phone number

Seditious Broadcaster | 15.03.2011 22:54 | Repression | Technology

New rules for posting on YouTube are an invasion of privacy and make anonymous posting much harder.

If you want to set up a new YouTube account, or even log in to your already existing YouTube account, you are now asked to provide a GoogleMail address and link it.

If you try to set up a new Googlemail account, you are asked for your phone number "in order to verify you are a human not a robot". You will then receive a text or automated voice call with details of how to verify your Google account.

In other words, to access your already established YouTube log in, you now have to provide a telephone number.

Anyone think this is a sinister and unwelcome new process?

Seditious Broadcaster

Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

unnecessary

15.03.2011 23:31

Thius would to me appear unnecessary. Surely someone's email address is very sufficient - this is like asking someone who produces a driving licence as ID to then produce their passport to prove they are person providing the driving licence...

But then the world is getting more and more filled with stupid bureaucratic crap.

newsmedia

Easy.

16.03.2011 00:32

Don't set up a Google account.

Bill Gates

Easy.

16.03.2011 00:33

Don't set up a Google account.

Bill Gates

@Easy

16.03.2011 01:33

if you want to post on YouTube you now HAVE to have a google account. That's my beef!

Yeah, I know - don't use YouTube.

But it's a good place to put stuff where people will find it. Now it appears you can't without giving Google your number.

Me again

Not only Youtube affected

16.03.2011 11:51

The tor network (through which this comment is being posted) could be a lot safer if there was a better way to get bridges which does not allow an attacker to collect the entire list. This rationing of information requires some kind of unique authentification even when the purpose is to obtain anonymity. By cutting dependency on that corporation, a replacement for the current use of a gmail account as a voucher could significantly increase security. The tor network can be used without bridges as well, and currently more often than not is, but they are a decisive component required to knock out surveillance and censorship.

torbrowser

Any number

16.03.2011 13:16

Tried it last night just put any number in the one I used wasn't a real number but it stil worked

Not a person

Get a throwaway SIM

16.03.2011 14:25

Easy fix - get a cheap SIM you can use to create and verify the account, then discard after use.

I suspect the main motivation here is just to stop automated registration of millions of accounts for use by spammers or scammers. I think they have CAPTCHAs to weed out bots, but bots are getting very sophisticated at reading distorted characters these days.

anon

real reason

16.03.2011 20:48

>> I suspect the main motivation here is just to stop automated registration of millions of accounts for use by spammers or scammers. I think they have CAPTCHAs to weed out bots, but bots are getting very sophisticated at reading distorted characters these days.

You can get people to do signups through captcha manual for very cheap nowadays.
Plenty of forums offering 10-20cents for a signup. Its actually a good living for people in a poor country. Human botnets - they are the future. Check out microworkers

Thats why youtube and other sites are asking for phone numbers, because captchas aren't good enough now. I think you lot are considering yourself too important - your details mean shit to youtube because they and their advertisers would never make a penny out of you. In fact - they probably don't even want you to use it given a choice because its a drain on resources.

voice of the truth