15 replies to this topic

[GooglesEvil]

Okay, so check this out. I set up a youtube site a few months ago. Just logged in a week or so ago and posted on my site that I missed the old youtube (before google took over.)

So guess what? Youtube/Google locked me out of my site! Was it retaliation on their part or an attempt at censorship? (I've noticed the comment doesn't appear on my site...) I know I have the correct password and login username as I wrote both down. I tried to log into my youtube site several times and when it didn't work, I requested to reset my password. On every other site I've been on that's been easy. I simply type in my email and they send me a link where I can type in a new password. Apparently, this is no longer true with Youtube/Google.

When I requested to change my password, google sent me a form I had to fill out. They wanted all kinds of personal info. They wanted my credit card info, first of all! Very disturbing! They wanted my email address and email addresses of my friends. Weird. So they must be able to go into people's emails and confirm who are sending them emails, right? Because they wanted to know the email addresses of people who'd sent me emails recently, supposedly in order to confirm my identity. They wanted to know the exact date when I set up my account and the exact date when I last logged in. Of course, if I didn't remember the exact dates and wasn't willing to give out my friends' e-mail addresses, I could just give them my credit card info and they'd charge me a fee for resetting my password!?

I find this to be very disturbing. Clearly, this is another example of a longstanding effort to censor the Internet by imposing fees on users. And it is NOT optional, as some commenters on your news forum suggested. It is required. I can no longer get into my site, so now my video, picture and personal info is up there for all to see and I can't at any time decide to shut down my site if I choose.

I came across this web site when I did a search on "google asking for credit card numbers" and found your wonderful news article. Unfortunately, you've closed comments on it. This is sad because I think more people need to know about this.

Yes, we don't need to post videos on youtube but the alternative sites aren't as widely used, so your videos won't be viewable on them. Funny thing is, I had warned people about this when Youtube starting requiring a phone number to set up an account. I knew they were going to start asking for personal info but my friends kept saying, "Oh no, they don't even keep track of your phone number. They just want to verify who you are."

Youtube used to be a place where people could make political statements. But now all that will change. No longer can we anonymously speak our minds. And the govt/youtube/corporate America are all watching. Scary indeed.

[tanjiajun_34]

You sure you aren't caught in some phishing website?
Any screenshots to share?

[Medfordite]

Welcome to Neowin! Let's hope you can get back on to Youtube.

I am interested in why you think it isn't a good service though. Always enjoy other Point of Views for discussion.

[nekkidtruth]

I smell B.S.

Youtube gains nothing from removing your site simply because you expressed you liked it before Google took over There's obviously another reason you no longer have access. People complain about Youtube every time something changes yet, they don't all disappear.

[+exotoxic]

smells phishy for sure.

[NateB1]

Was it this site, by any chance? https://www.google.c...ts/recovery/skt

[sagum]

Medfordite, on 17 March 2013 - 03:53, said:

Welcome to Neowin! Let's hope you can get back on to Youtube.

I am interested in why you think it isn't a good service though. Always enjoy other Point of Views for discussion.

Probably best to start your own thread on it rather then hijacking this one as it can be a whole discussion in itself.

Personally, the adverts are really starting to annoy me with google now. There are so many videos that I'm having to watch a 30 second full advert witout the option to skip after 5 seconds that I've found myself only logging in very few days now. I open new videos in a tab, hit the mute button and let it play the advert and load the video... and that's another issue. the cache they use for the videos suck really bad most of the time. I know how it works but I always seem to hit the ones coming from America or something that isn't cached locally and the buffer takes forever and a day. If that's not bad enough the 'hd' video quality is really bad most of the time, there doesn't seem to be a consistent encode for quality on uploads. Lastly, their recent enforcement to making me have a google account and trying their damn hardest for me to use my 'real name' what ever that is, has annoyed the heck out of me too... don't even get me started on communications, after all that's what it was about, that made it popular... *sigh*

I prefer vimeo, but since its mostly a paid service (but the content providers), it doesn't get used as much.

Still... it's youtube, there are ways around most of the niggles.

[rippleman]

The entire google service is connected now. The same steps are for email access and recovery. To stop people from getting easy access to your account (with all your info) they are very thorough in making sure they give access to the actual owner. If they didn't do this, people would critize them for making it too easy.

Added: the only way they would ask for your credit card is if your credit card was placed on file for Google services by the original creator.

[GooglesEvil]

NateB1, Yes, it was on that site. I filled in the info indicating I'd lost my password. However, I'd entered my correct password but it wasn't going through as my correct password. My youtube site is/was here: www.youtube.com/GuitarGrrrrrl Looks like it's still up but I can't access it.

Now, when I go on that site again and enter my email address it says "no account found with that email address."

To the person who wrote that's "b.s." above, do you work for Google? Because seriously, I have no reason to make this up. I believe in privacy and Google has no reason to do this. Most sites just send you a link you can click on to reset your password and it's as simple as that. There's no reason to ask me for my friends' email address.

Also I am dealing with a cyber stalker myself right now and I can tell you that I've gotten little help from the authorities in trying to stop him, so companies like Google don't care about screening people to make sure you're not doing harm on the Internet. I went through a lot with Facebook, have proof, including screenshots, etc., but they wouldn't do anything to penalize the guy stalking me, so I don't believe this has anything to do with protecting anyone here other than Google's self interest. I only have one video--my own original song--that's up on my site, so there's no reason for Google to shut down my site. As you can see, I didn't even get many views.

Also, I wanted to start my own post about this but I'm new to this site and wasn't able to post right away, so I thought the proper procedure was to introduce myself here.

Am I the only person left in America who believes in the right to privacy and freedom of speech? I have my videos up on several different sites and have been on the Internet since the very beginning. This is the first time anything like this has happened to me.

Rippleman, I don't have a credit card on file with them. Unfortunately, I can't get back to the screen to make a screenshot of it, but at the top it asked me to give my ccd no. and that if I didn't I needed to supply more info. But the info was so specific, like wanting to know the exact date I'd last logged in, my friends' emails, etc. I gave them my email addy and that shd be all they'd need to verify it was me. The msg sd they'd get back to me in 3 days and indicated that was the "free" service, that I wasn't going to be charged. This suggests to me that they're thinking of charging people a fee for this.

But as I said, I can't get back to the screen again to prove it to you as it now tells me I don't have an acct. Doesn't make sense as my site is still up there. I've got other sites on sev'l other video sharing sites but youtube gets the most views.

One more thing, I am the original creator of the site. Honestly, if you look at my site, you'll see it's very simple, only one basic video with very few views. I had to enter a cell phone number when I first opened the site (not a credit card, would never do that) but it didn't ask me for the cell number when I tried to reset my password. Weird. I'm on another computer now but I still can't access my youtube site. Honestly, something is going on here.

Sorry, I keep ranting here. I will stop after this. I have been dealing w/a cyber stalker, so I don't know whether that could have anything to do with this, i.e., that he cd have hacked my youtube acct or something... I've reported it to the police but, of course, they won't do anything. I hope that's not the problem, but I think I'm going to stick w/vimeo, blip and veoh for a while.

[shockz]

nekkidtruth, on 17 March 2013 - 04:12, said:

I smell B.S.

Youtube gains nothing from removing your site simply because you expressed you liked it before Google took over There's obviously another reason you no longer have access. People complain about Youtube every time something changes yet, they don't all disappear.

Such a great welcoming committee Neowin has nowadays....

[nekkidtruth]

shockz, on 18 March 2013 - 00:12, said:

Such a great welcoming committee Neowin has nowadays....

Because signing up on Neowin with the username "GooglesEvil" and posting for the first time about some conspiracy theory about how Google removed an account because someone simply doesn't like the changes being made to Youtube, is such a great way to introduce yourself.

[GooglesEvil]

I just made a screenshot that shows youtube won't let me sign in as it now indicates I don't have a google account (even though my site is still up there.) Can't get back to the other site to scr shot that as it now says I don't have an acct at all on youtube.

Attached Images

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[GooglesEvil]

Didn't mean to hijack the site. Where else in the forum shd I have posted this?

Also this isn't a conspiracy theory. I'm surprised that there are people out there who still don't know how often Google violates it's users' privacy. How cd you not know this?

Anyway, since some do not believe me, I spent some time on this and I was able to access the site again and to make a scr shot of it.

I hope it'll post here. (Again, I'm new to this site, but I'm adding it as an attachment.) Hopefully, you'll
be able to see what I mean. Google clearly asks for my credit card number in order to retrieve my password. AND I have my password written down so I know I entered it correctly. Why does it suddenly not work?

Perhaps in the future I'll set up another youtube site, not sure. But I don't like giving out personal info on myself on the Internet and no other site I've encountered has asked me for this. The fact that, as you can see, Google lists a charge of $0 indicates that they are intending to begin charging people for this in the future. This is something we shd all be concerned about, IMO.

[GooglesEvil]

Oh and, btw, I answered the ?s under "Provide details abt ur acct" and I have my password which I know is correct. I just wdn't give them four of my friends' email addys or my ccd info (they'd asked for more info on the original page I was taken to on their web site. That page I can't get back to w/o a google acct and they're now saying I don't have one.) What more info shd I provide? I'd think my email and pword wd be enough since I'd only logged into my site abt a wk ago. All I did when I logged in was lv that comment that I missed the old youtube, that Google violates privacy, then I logged out. I was just checking in on my site, so I didn't nd to upload videos, lv comments or anything. It's a very simple site that only a few of my friends have viewed, so again, this is really weird. Guess I'm the only one who's experienced this? So maybe it's a new thing w/google that they're testing out. Sounds like what they're finding is some ppl don't mind having their privacy violated...

Btw, vimeo, blip.tv and veoh are free to view. At least I've been able to watch videos on those sites w/o any problems. I just liked uploading onto youtube as well 'cause there are more viewers... Miss the old youtube. Oh well.

Actually, I really appreciate the responses here though. Guess I found out w/I needed to know: a.) I'm the only one; and b.) few ppl care anymore.
So thanks!

[Eascc Campo]

Strange things happen to computers depending on where one goes on line. Believe it or not just shopping on Amazon can fix some computer problems but I can't remember which ones. Anyone can get computer troubles from just looking not even downloading. I've never had a utube site but because it's always changing I assume you're site was set to end when you first started it. There are too many of us that want to do too much and for free. I did decades of corporate accounting and never worked for a computer type entity. It's unfair of them not to tell you, if my guess is right, and unfair of you to expect for free use of their computer and services.