I got home from work just now and found several emails from friends asking if I had deleted my blog.
WTF???
I clicked on my bookmark to check. Yep, blog no longer available.
WTF???
So I logged onto Blogger to try to access it from there, and was told that my blog had been deleted. But wait - if your blog has mysteriously disappeared, there's help available.
The 'help' was a message that there had been unusual activity on my blog, and Google just needed my mobile number so they could send me a text that would 'verify' me.
Okay. That sounds like extortion to me. "Give us your phone number and we'll give you your blog back".
Now, both Google and Yahoo have been trying forever to get me to 'add my mobile number' to my account. (Oh so many benefits would be mine if I did so. Benefits that don't interest me in the slightest, but they just don't get that.)
But I don't want them to have my number. The only ones who have my number are my employers and my family. Even my friends don't have my number. My number is MY number.
So, I had to weigh my options. Give them the number or lose 4+ years of work. You can see by the fact that I'm posting (and that you can see it) that I caved in.
But I am seriously seriously pissed.
Oh wow, that is the worst kind of blackmail! Holding your entire blog hostage? That's pretty evil.
ReplyDeleteNow that they have my mobile number, every month I have to re-verify my account with them. And any time I log into Gmail from another computer I have to do the same thing - have it send me a magic security code by text message.
I guess it's more secure this way, so yay?
Hmmmm - they've been trying to get my number for a while... and I don't have one. I wonder if the same thing will happen to me...
ReplyDeleteCouldn't you give them your landline number and just say it was your cell?
ReplyDeleteSo far I have not had to give up my cell number to anyone I didn't want to have it. So far...
What would they have done if you did not have a mobile phone? Like I do not? There are some of us who just don't need them, you know, the hermits?
ReplyDeleteBTW I'm blogging again. Not regularly yet but I'll get there.
I saw that it was missing. That is quite a story. Hmmmmm....
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. When I called Fairpoint regarding my service and the fact that I could never, ever pay my bill online, they wanted my cell phone number. I refused and they told me not once, but twice, that it was "their right" to have my number. I reminded them that it was "moi" who was paying the bill and they did not have the right. The person was so rude, and I got angry and canceled all my services with them. I went to Comcast instead and am delighted with the service. It is much better than Fairpoint ever thought of being.
ReplyDeleteForgot.....I would have given Blogger some fictious # like 802-0000 that doesn't appear to be anyone's number but those entries are automated and would not have known any better.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that's one of the reasons I'm staying with Typepad, even though it's a paid subscription. Google keeps asking for my phone too and they can delete my gmail account if they want, but I am NOT giving them any of my phone numbers.
ReplyDeleteYup - happened to Dude too. On a server level (so all our blogs disappeared). But since his phone is essentially useless :) he gave them his number.
ReplyDelete