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Cloud Print ready printer setup requires my password?

UncleMike

Android Expert
Nov 15, 2009
2,321
483
Central NJ
I just got a Brother MFC-J430W multi-function printer on sale for under $50. The timing was right - I needed new ink cartridges for my existing printer, and the wireless network solved another problem. This model is claimed to be Google Cloud Print ready, which sounded very appealing to me. Unfortunately, the cloud print setup requires me to enter my Google account name (okay) and password (absolutely NOT okay) into a web page hosted on the printer. This is in stark contrast to being redirected to a Google page where I enter this info, and the device or app is provided with an access token.

Is this really the way Google Cloud Print is intended to work for "ready" devices? If so, this seems like a piss-poor way of doing things. In these days of identity theft and data theft, I find it hard to believe any legitimate company would think it's proper/acceptable to require a user's login credentials for a third-party service.

I know I can provide an "application-specific" password for this (if I have two-step authentication enabled), but it's still an unacceptable, half-assed approach if you ask me.
 
I just got a Brother MFC-J430W multi-function printer on sale for under $50. The timing was right - I needed new ink cartridges for my existing printer, and the wireless network solved another problem. This model is claimed to be Google Cloud Print ready, which sounded very appealing to me. Unfortunately, the cloud print setup requires me to enter my Google account name (okay) and password (absolutely NOT okay) into a web page hosted on the printer. This is in stark contrast to being redirected to a Google page where I enter this info, and the device or app is provided with an access token.

Is this really the way Google Cloud Print is intended to work for "ready" devices? If so, this seems like a piss-poor way of doing things. In these days of identity theft and data theft, I find it hard to believe any legitimate company would think it's proper/acceptable to require a user's login credentials for a third-party service.

I know I can provide an "application-specific" password for this (if I have two-step authentication enabled), but it's still an unacceptable, half-assed approach if you ask me.

Your printer isn't even listed in this document...
 
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I found that out during the setup process, but nevertheless, Brother claims it to be Google Cloud Print ready. After posting, I found out that Brother's Cloud Print support on this printer (and many others) is broken - by a "recent" change Google made to authentication. There's no date on the support document on Brother's site, so I have no idea what they mean by "recent", but my suspicion is that it wouldn't be considered recent by anyone in the tech industry.

According to the support document, it's unknown if or when the issue will ever be fixed. But since online references (reviews, etc.) for this model date back almost 2 years, I suspect it's nearing EOL, and will be unlikely to see any firmware updates that would fix the problem, even if they come up with a solution.
 
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