I reported on this issue last summer, in this article, and the practice is still continuing one year later. The image on the top was taken around 6:00P.M. E.S.T on June 16th, 2012 while attempting to login to my Google (Gmail, and Google Drive) account.
This image appeared after entering the same password 3-4 times, on two different Google login platforms, Gmail and Google Drive. The password was entered manually each time, meticulously as I was thinking I may have been hacked since I knew I was entering the correct password, which on the last attempt worked, and prompted the page screen shot below.
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| Screen shot taken around 6:00 P.M. E.S.T. on June 16, 2012. Screen shot is of prompt-screen for phone number in between a successful login to a Go ogle service, and that services main page. This page would appear in between the login page for Gmail, and the user gaining access to then Gmail inbox. |
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| Screen shot is of a prompt-screen in between a successful login to a Google service, and that services main page. This would appear between the login page for Gmail, and the user gaining access to then Gmail inbox. No time stamp information is currently available for this image. Image Source |
Google has multiple variants of this implementation shown in the image below, also from previous article.
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| Screen Shot Taken: 8/31/11 12:32 AM Screen shot is of a prompt-screen in between a successful login to a Google service, and that services main page. This would appear between the login page for Gmail, and the user gaining access to then Gmail inbox. Image Source |
Last year when I originally wrote about this topic it seemed both benign, and an invasion of privacy. Google wanted to gain information, so they attempted to gain phone numbers. Ultimately they want a database of all human knowledge, including all knowledge that exists anywhere about you. They want to know everything.
A year ago I declined to give my phone number, although as many who attempt to fight the good fight we often have to use the tools of the enemy to our advantage. A year after the first report I have an android phone, of which is already synced to my Google account. It didn't matter this time that they wanted it, I entered it, whatever.
The problem was how Google went about it. I believe they crossed a major ethical line. I believe Google is now operating a moderated script of one that was running last summer causing the phone number prompts.
As of now this is speculation, and I have no proof that it exists or that I will be able to find such proof before it disappears. I welcome any, and all to try to support my hypothesis or disprove it. Please pardon any techno-babble below. Below is my hypothesis on the maliciously designed Google script that is operating in the wild across the Google Umbrella Network.
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