Want GMail? Pls give us your mobile number...

... forever.

IMHO, this is a step too far.

Have a look : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/29/gmail_mobile/

 

That must be a fairly new development.
I signed up within the last month and I don't recall seeing that.

I agree, it's a bit too much.

 

Oh hell no they did not just do that. I can confirm it to be true, I just tried. What in gods name are they thinking? My current account will be nothing more than my spam collector, and I may not even use it for that. It looks like Yahoo may be getting my business again, and Google, well, they'll get no business from anyone who will bother to listen to me.

 

I've been using Hotmail for years and years, is that bad? I remember reading about GMail before it even launched, how they would keep your deleted emails for a few years. I never went near it.

 

I trust them more with my deleted emails than I do my phone number (I don't use Gmail for sensitive things). I get enough spam calls as it is without letting Google give my number to its army of advertisers....and they WILL do it, what else are they going to do with it? This is just another disguised way to sell/give more data for advertising purposes. Funny how this shows up the day after Yahoo and Microsoft announce their search deal, is it not?

 

I was using gmail for message board accounts. I opened a new account for every message board...until the other day when they wanted my cell phone number.

I guess a way around that would be to get a cheap prepaid phone.

 

They didn't ask me for a mobile phone number when I opened my gmail account a month ago. I wouldn't give them one at any rate.

 

Why would you go to that trouble and cost just to be able to use G-mail when you could make a Hotmail, Yahoo, or ISP provided e-mail account for no cost and with no trouble. I think that asking for your cell phone number is asking a bit too much. I wouldn't do it. A lot of people already have apprehensive feelings about how Google doesn't make privacy as big of a concern as they should, so why potentially make people even more apprehensive?

I use Hotmail but Google has always been my homepage and first choice of a search engine.

 

Oh , come on . They are all the same .

One must accept Google has the best anti-SPAM filter out there - almost no mistakes when clasifying emails .

But they are all the same . Microsoft (a.k.a. Hotmail/Live mail) might not ask for your your cell phone number but they also have bad practises .

I just closed my Google account (don't ask the reasons - not because of this article) and I no longer use their services (except from the Google search engine , of course ) and from a few days we all at the office have Live mail accounts (@windowslive.com) . They have limitations for their users (mails sent per day) . At the moment I personally can't send emails because of the fact "I have sent too many today" . I must wait 24 hours . Well , I use email quite a lot and this has completely crashed me when I saw it . Some time needs to past since I have a "better reputation" (not the one of a new user) and send more emails per day . But still not unlimited . I wish I knew that earlier . God !

 

Viewing pictures in Gmail is cool. Yahoo SUCKS! for this. And I am pretty sure that you cab send a 20 MB attachment in gmail. But I will take a look at Hotmail.

 

Up to 10 Mb in Hotmail/Live mail account

 

GMX has an attachment size limit of 50MB

Storage is 5GB

That's where I am heading.

 

Why can't you just put in a false number?

 

Because the sign up process involves you doing something with a verification SMS that Google sends.

 

Last time I remember seeing them, it was about 7 years ago, I don't know whether they still exist, but they were called telephone books: a long list of names and telephone numbers accessible to anybody. IMO, not a big deal.

 

50MB? No way! I have to see this. Thanks for the tip.

 

I'd be looking at their privacy policy first before falling in love: http://www.gmx.com/privacy.html;jsessionid=78B703D94DC96351DBD63B4BB55CED57.www-us015. Granted it isn't exactly "insidious". I'll stick to Yahoo/Hotmail for now.

 

The article does state:
"Your number will also be associated with your account to avoid unnecessary future verifications for other Google services", though Google does clarify: "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".

The problem I still find with hotmail etc is the amount of advertising you receive. Used gmail for years now and haven't received one piece of spam.

Been using www.gmx.com for the past few months and it's quite good. Especially the preview screen when viewing each email, and no scrolling from page to page, you can scroll through your entire inbox.

Has a mail collector feature, and I've used it on one hotmail address (where no private info exists), and any emails sent to hotmail are sent to my gmx.com address. I can also choose to reply to these emails with my standard gmx.com address or the same hotmail username, with the gmx.com domain.

For example:
stevesmith@gmx.com

Collect:
dickbag@hotmail.com

Emails sent to hotmail.com will be received at gmx.com. You can reply with either:
stevesmith@gmx.com
dickbag@gmx.com

 

Regarding trusting www.gmx.com, I've had an email setup at www.gmx.net for more than 10 years now.

It's all in german (although I'm not german, and can't speak it, I know my way around the email). The reason I signed up many years ago, was the difference in storage. They offered a gig at the same time hotmail was offering something like 200MB. Took hotmail and yahoo etc years to catch up to gmx.net (they still have the free email but offer a pro email account for business users etc).

And gmx.net's spam feature is excellent. So I've trusted www.gmx.net for 10+ years, I don't see any reason not to trust www.gmx.com

 

I've used Gmail for years now,but this http://www.gmx.com/ looks interesting,might give it a try

 

I took a look at the gmx site.
What's this?
"And we never display advertising next to your e-mails. Never."
Is that true?

That in itself would be a good incentive for me to switch.

 

You don't have to give it to them. It's merely an option. They are obviously preparing a big rollout of Google Voice and they want your mobile number. There are millions of people without cell phones, Gmail doesn't turn them away because they can't confirm a text message on a cell phone. I take the Register with a grain of salt and always check it myself. They can be a bit sensational.

 

Something you might want to consider. I certainly would if I were to apply for that service.

I just clicked on the link above.
And a few seconds or minutes later a GMX spam/phishing (??) email arrived in the inbox of my email account (ISP).

That can't be a coincidence !
But I'm not sure what to think of that.

 

Luckily I can't confirm that because after reading your post I checked my own account and nothing was there. You may want to run an AV/AS scan in case something was already on your system...or, maybe GMX truly IS insidious. I can't say either way yet as I have no proof of my own. But what happened to you is awful suspicious.

 

Confirmed, they no longer require your mobile to set up an account. I'm going to keep my eye on this, I've heard no change in policy from any news, blogs, anywhere.