I found it interesting to read that GMAIL can be quite anal about account creation. I have one from years back. Hardly ever use it. But I have noticed that GMAIL accounts seem to be the email service of choice on Craigslist (Casual Encounters). I better explain myself here. I live in area that is well protected by the police. But one night I went out to pick up a pizza, halftime, and I was outside by my car waiting, and was approached by a Lady of the Evening. I was kind of stunned. So I started monitoring Craigslist. I said all this to bring up my experiences with Outlook.com.
I set up 3 accounts, all using the "Alternate email address" option. One for my father, stop his griping about GMAIL, one for a friend to keep in touch while I was on a roadtrip in Oregon, and another one for me. Once set up, I tested them out, send/recieve an email. Within few days, all were "Temporarily Suspended", for some unspecified "possible" violation of ToS. To unlock them I would be require to provide a text able phone number to recieve an activation code, and require to use the code within 10 minutes. Now I did not create these accounts all at once, there were months in between. I am just waiting for the day, when my other accounts, which I have had for years, multiple accounts were needed in the days before email aliases, to recieve the same treatment. So I am not really hot on the idea of providing them my phone number, especially after this type of treatment. Therefore, what they call "burner phone", I guess is the solution. Suggestions would be appreciated on a "burner phone". I remember years ago, when there was talk of the government controlling the internet, and websites protested by turning their backgrounds to black. That today there are many large tech companies now applying their own version of privacy invasion (tracking) and censorship.
1984: Government's Attempt to Control The Mind and Bodies of Its Citizens
The novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is an American classic which explores the human mind when it comes to power, corruption, control, and the ultimate utopian society. Orwell indirectly proposes that power given to the government will ultimately become corrupt and they will attempt to force all to conform to their one set standard. He also sets forth the idea that the corrupted government will attempt to destroy any and all mental and physical opposition to their beliefs, thus eliminating any opportunity for achieving an utopian society.
I guess Mr Orwell got it wrong, it won't be the government.
Google has already shown it's belief in "Diversity", but only how they define it, as experienced by the engineer they just booted.
Google, FaceBook, Apple, Twitter, and Microsoft will be controlling all the information. Don't be surprised if you see only what they want you to see.
People worry about the NSA invading your private life, the NSA drools about the data these Techno Giants already have. And of course they put on this glorified act of denial when the government requests information.
Yet people worry about who will police what these government entities are doing, so who is going to police these Techno Giants? Remember, these companies are in for the money and all that that comes with it.
Zuckerberg wants everyone to have a Basic Income, who is going to pay for that? But it is one way to buy votes. It sounds like just another welfare program.
Welfare is destroying this country, as it is today. It destroys incentive and when that happens, the mind becomes worthless.
I really wonder if all this turmoil could have been avoided if members in Congress actually knew the laws that they passed, and Law Enforcement would actually enforce the laws. This has just led to a lot of hysteria. For example, Pelosi, who is desperately trying to maintain relevance, going all Pelosium on the National Park Service to cancel a permit for a conservative “white supremacist” group Patriot Prayer’s pro-Trump for fear of violence. The problem is, they are not white supremacists, all but one of the speakers is ‘white’, and the organizer is not ‘white’. Unless Pelosi is outstandingly ignorant, if not, is she just trying to suppress Freedom of Speech? Side Note: I will sit and flip from one news channel to another, and from what I observe, I think I know why unemployment is down. These news broadcasts cannot get enough contributors, analysts, and so-called experts on to fill up the screen. Where do they find these people? More importantly, do they get paid and how much? Because if the money is good, if there is a list, I want on it.
They did at one time offer UNLIMITED!
Nothing but “Bait~n~Switch”.
Any business that offers “UNLIMITED” anything that incurs costs has:
1. planned an exit excuse: “It was being “ABUSED”, or
2. does not mind going out of business.
They said people were abusing the "UNLIMITED" to justify lowering the allowed storage limit in order to start charging. So for Outlook.com they lowered it to 15 GB, why not say 500 GB? Because it would not generate the revenue stream they could have at lower storage limits. Then they prompted you to either signup to keep it at 15 GB, or if you missed the deadline, it will go back to 5 GB.
What is in the future? Be prepared when using their apps, it won't be long, and it is already happening, that the only place you can store your files that you create is on their cloud space. So be prepared if you need your data when say you are on vacation out in the boondocks! It happened!
Remember their corporate motto, “cloud first, mobile first,…………. Consumer last (ad lib)”!
“Your Data Belongs to U$!”
Retired as govt engineer. Reported a security violation, employees sharing passwords/account on a secured network.
The 2 contractor ITs claimed to know nothing about it. At most only a handful of employees have access to the network and at most, but rarely 3 work on the network at the same time. If the contractor ITs were not aware, and they never are more that a few feet of the activity, they should have been fired. Management moved me to an isolated area and began the slow process of retaliation, so as not to look like retaliation. To their surprise, I walked away from my job. BTW, the supervisor I was reassigned too, told me not to report any more observations. I am not a fan of contractor support, and I see no reason to use such infrastructure such as Amazon to store any data, especially sensitive data.
The US is seriously blundering by using contractors for military operations, and instead needs to hire more military personnel and civilian employees. This fixation on not having more government staff (and on funneling money to private sector contractors) is endangering the US government's operation.
In-house staff aren't a panacea, but in-housing critical capabilities has always been the prudent decision.
Of course, much the same can be said about contractors and off-shoring in the private sector as well.
At this point, the US is cannibalizing its future for short-term gains. Of course, the people making the decisions generally won't bear the costs, and have convinced much of the populace that such a strategy will benefit them through wishes and pixie dust.
Nothing changes until we can reduce money's influence over the election process. Until then, any special interest with deep enough pockets can and will have US taxpayers over a barrel.
Original commenter is correct. This has little to do with salaries. The political power and money goes toward a government that sends tax dollars at high margins to contractors who don't even earn it in many cases. There's no major liability for malice so long as it affects taxpayers instead of those in power. The defense contractors continue to cut anything nonessential to their mission of turning tax dollars into profit for the people on top. And vicious circle continues.
Here's a nice write-up on the bribery and abuses of just one:
The others pull the same shit. The biggest trick is the revolving door of moving people back and forth into the private sector with them benefiting while taxpayers lose.
And note before any counterpoint that a non-corrupt system might pay better wages in the event you're right. Most of the wages are rigged to go up and to bullshit that benefits people I'm describing. That could easily go to better tech. For instance, the first time the private market started doing strong security was a small initiative by the U.S. government mandating it with purchases promised in return. Led to the strongest systems of the time that resisted NSA pentesting. Although NSA killed that (incompetence or malice), it could be done again with a different group.
Most people who got into gov. gigs know this but the upside always been a cushy retirement, sweet pension and a Cadillac health care plan in retirement.
"Unfunded government liabilities" are now always on the chopping block and those people that took those low paying jobs for a better long term payout in the end are now getting screwed, royally. Government jobs are no longer the sweet gig people think they are and I think they have to start being more competitive with the larger markets.
Get this! Google and companies allocate a tremendous amount of money in corporate lawyers and legal staff. These companies have a well-documented history of suing other companies when they feel a contract has been abused or unfulfilled. Google entered into a contract with the Federal Government, they received compensation. Google was fully aware of their requirements to fulfill the contract. And just in case they did not, too damn bad. And that is exactly how Google would view it when suing another company for not meeting contract obligations. Unfortunately, there are a lot of companies that attempt to weasel out of their contractual obligations with the government at the cost of taxpayers. But put the shoe on the other foot, these companies and for sure Google would be applying the full resources of their respective legal departments to make sure the Federal Government met their obligations under the contract. So don’t fool yourself into thinking that Google was not aware of their obligations under the contract. If they didn’t like the terms, they should not have entered into the contract. There is nothing sneaky about the terms of this contract, nothing unique, and nothing vague. All companies that enter in to contractual obligations with the Federal Government meet the required obligations. And when you consider the Federal Government has had for decades prominent contracts with Defense contractors, who are notorious for seeking any weasel room they can to get around these obligations, I seriously doubt Google can come up with any revolutionary excuse. Google has used the foolish excuse that they are trying to protect the “PRIVACY” of their employees, and this is a bunch of crap, because the IRS, another Federal Government Agency has that wage data. So I can only surmise, that Google, one of the “BIG” voices of social reform, liberalism and whatever other causes that are emitted from the Silicon Valley complex may just be a hypocrite.
Took a shower!
I think Google is being disrespectful to the citizens of this country. They are relying on leveraging this social movement of keeping the government out of their private lives. As if some old greasy fart, is sitting in some underground secluded vault reading your emails, texts, and whatever just for fun. But you have Google, Facebook, Apple, Uber, Microsoft, Twitter and so on writing complex algorithms to monetize where you have been, where you are, where you are going, what you read, how you shop, what you buy, using your phone to listen in on what commercials you are watching, where you are in the mall, who you are with, when you sleep and how you sleep or maybe even who you are sleeping with, what toys you buy, your phone number, extracting data from your emails and on and on. And these companies throw these pages of EULA agreements at you, and they know you don’t read them. They have an algorithm for that. Then some of these companies have the audacity to state that the “MAY SHARE” the data with third parties. Really? So just what part of your life do you consider PRIVATE? And more importantly, just what do you consider PRIVATE? And what do these companies tell you what their objective is in collecting all this data? “We are enhancing the consumers experience!”. If they really wanted to “enhance the consumer’s experience” allow the consumer the “OPT IN” and not throw a bunch of convoluted Setting screens to with obtuse worded options to “OPT OUT”. That is a lot of data that they extract, analyze and monetize. And Google says the Department of Labor’s request is more that they can handle and too costly to extract. How the heck do they even send out employee’s W-2s?
Considering that there are probably hundreds of companies listed as Federal Contractors, and among them, the major Defense Contractors with thousands of employees. I would find it difficult to believe that Google has any grounds that would make them an exception to complying with the Federal requirement of submitting Compensation Data. From experience I can assure that Defense Contractors would have exploited any loophole or angle to relieve them of fulfilling this Federal requirement. Of note here is that Google was asked to submit this data back in September of 2015 and have been given numerous opportunities to meet their obligation. “Diversity and equal pay” of the workforce has been a very visible topic as of late, so you would think that Google would take a position of being in the forefront, and setting an example especially in the tech industry. It hasn’t been too long ago, Microsoft was being chastised for its apparent lack of diversity and equal pay. Google was not forced to be a Federal Contractor; they accepted that position and therefore accepted the responsibility of meeting the Federal requirement from the beginning. If Google had a problem then, they should have not accepted the responsibility of being a Federal Contractor. Maybe Google has taken the position that they are “Too Big to Comply” or they do have something to hide. But the old adage applies, “They knew what they were getting into in the first place”, and they undoubtedly accepted compensation.
I recommend reading some of the news that started this 3 months ago[0]. Quote from Google's response:
"However, the handful of OFCCP requests that are the subject of the complaint are overbroad in scope, or reveal confidential data, and we’ve made this clear to the OFCCP, to no avail. These requests include thousands of employees’ private contact information which we safeguard rigorously."
Again, Google entered into a contractual agreement to be compensated as a Federal Contractor. DoL's request is part of that contract. Google's stand for protecting private contact information is basically mute. The IRS also contains much of that information. I recommend reading the official complaint. https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ofccp/ofccp20170104
But they give you the option to provide a text able phone number and give you 10 minutes to use the texted Access Code?
I have had that happen 3 times......... they after your cell phone number and holding your account hostage to get it.
They will not respond to any other option nor give evidence of what they claim violated any Terms of Use. They just say "Suspected".