What is the alternative? For Gmail, I take the precautions of configuring mobile phone, authenticator app, backup email address, and printed out codes. What else can I do? Is it really better to use several different email addresses?
For Facebook, I’m currently completely locked out. I have the right username and password, but the email accounts I used to create the Facebook account are disabled now, being university accounts.
At one point, Facebook wanted my credit card or driver’s license as proof to tenable the account, which I wasn’t comfortable with. Then it got paired down to three randomly chosen connections that I needed to contact outside of Facebook. Once chosen by Facebook, these contacts cannot be changed. For me, it included a deceased person and two people I haven't even seen since high school. Now, it just wants to validate the email addresses with no other options.
So now what? Nothing in my control ever went wrong. I know my account, I am the person, and I have the username and password. It would be nice to be able to just call a number with a human on the other line to verify that it is me.
We've entered the era of "death by scale". We and the government allow these companies to treat customers and people as statistical entities. They don't give a shit if their products either flat out don't work or ruin a customer's life for "only" x percent if x is small enough.
For Facebook, I’m currently completely locked out. I have the right username and password, but the email accounts I used to create the Facebook account are disabled now, being university accounts.
At one point, Facebook wanted my credit card or driver’s license as proof to tenable the account, which I wasn’t comfortable with. Then it got paired down to three randomly chosen connections that I needed to contact outside of Facebook. Once chosen by Facebook, these contacts cannot be changed. For me, it included a deceased person and two people I haven't even seen since high school. Now, it just wants to validate the email addresses with no other options.
So now what? Nothing in my control ever went wrong. I know my account, I am the person, and I have the username and password. It would be nice to be able to just call a number with a human on the other line to verify that it is me.
We've entered the era of "death by scale". We and the government allow these companies to treat customers and people as statistical entities. They don't give a shit if their products either flat out don't work or ruin a customer's life for "only" x percent if x is small enough.