One very convenient feature of Google allows a single log-in to third-party websites and apps with a single click. If you’re logged into google on your phone/app, there’s a good chance you can just click the “log in with Google” button and you’re in.
Of course, such convenience comes at a cost to your privacy.
So what happens when you try to switch away, when you try to either switch your account or create a new one from an e-mail address? Well, so far I’ve noticed three things:
- Indeed kept sending e-mail to my google account for months afterward.
- Patreon made the process of switching my account off of Google so convoluted, I opted to just nuke my account entirely.
- One retail site is giving me an error creating a new non-G account, probably because my device, a Samsung-owned tablet, is already “registered”, probably through some super invasive Google process hardware fingerprinting it and linking it to my account. I’m kicking it back to the website for the time being.
This is advisable regardless of whether the service makes switching a pain or not. Linking accounts once creates a link forever. If privacy and clean separation are your goals, break the link and start from scratch.
If you can, ditch the service. This kind of fuckery should not be rewarded with hard currency.
If you can’t, use a desktop machine to create a new account. If things don’t work in a vanilla browser, you can escalate the process by