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Ask HN: Google Requiring Birthday

by sds357 on 4/9/21, 1:24 PM with 3 comments

This week my phone received a couple of notifications from Google stating birthday required. I dismissed them. Today signing in on desktop browser Google won't let me proceed without adding a birthday. A message states it's required by law.

What law? I've used this account since gmail started, now they need to know more personal details? Seems if I don't enter it I will be locked out of my phone and all google services.

  • by pwg on 4/9/21, 1:49 PM

    #1: Don't sign-in/use google services.

    #2: Do note, they want 'a' birthday. Why would you ever consider giving them a real anything? Online services that 'demand' unnecessary metadata, where you decide to give metadata to continue to use them as opposed to dropping them, *always* get fake metadata.

    Years ago the washington post used to demand some unnecessary metadata to read articles. I was a 98 year old from Mongolia one day, a 65 year old Peruvian for the next, and the answers were different, and fake, every time (I'd clear their cookie immediately to trigger another 'ask' for the next time I would click on a link to them).

  • by Sayrus on 4/9/21, 1:47 PM

    AFAIK The birth birthday itself is not "required by law" but there are several restrictions for services directed to children under 13.

    I can think of the most known Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and some EU safeguards that prevent you from processing a child's personal data without the guardian consent.

    I would also guess that there are content restrictions that might be hard to implement on a Google account and they prefer locking children out of their platform. I do think Facebook and many others applies the same method.

    Disclaimer: This is not legal advice