Help Android without a Google ID?

[monty]

I was wondering if it's possible to use Android on the G1 without a Google ID? It's my understanding that your Google ID is tightly integrated with Android and you basically can't use it without providing one. Can anyone tell me if this is true, and if I can use an Android-based phone without it making me use Google's services?

Thanks!
-Monty

 

[Android0523]

No Dude...the TMobile G1 WITH GOOGLE

 

[monty]

No Dude...the TMobile G1 WITH GOOGLE

Hmmm...that's too bad. I was told that all your data lives in Google's "cloud", and that you can't even save a contact or calendar entry without it living on Google's servers. Am I the only one who doesn't feel comfortable having my personal information in the cloud?

Just curious...
-Monty

 

[theevilone]

Yes it would worry me if I was a shady person. just do not put personal information on it.

 

[OrganizedFellow]

I was wondering if it's possible to use Android on the G1 without a Google ID? It's my understanding that your Google ID is tightly integrated with Android and you basically can't use it without providing one. Can anyone tell me if this is true, and if I can use an Android-based phone without it making me use Google's services?

Thanks!
-Monty

That depends.

Can you figure out a way to use Gmail without involving Google?

Hmmm...that's too bad. I was told that all your data lives in Google's "cloud", and that you can't even save a contact or calendar entry without it living on Google's servers. Am I the only one who doesn't feel comfortable having my personal information in the cloud?

Just curious...
-Monty

Probably.
I am very comfortable with that.

1. I don't send anything extremely crucial to my business with Gmail or Gcal. I use my own hosted email, calendar and servers for that.
2. Anything too confidential and personal for online remains on paper.

It's THAT simple.

 

[monty]

It's a slippery slope.

I think I'm going to hold off on getting a Android-based device until I can verify that I can keep my info on my devices and machines. WinMobile does this just fine, but unfortunately I hate WinMobile.

I think I understand the strategy: Google provides lots of quality, innovative applications (gmail, gcal, igoogle, YouTube, etc.) to their users for "free", in exchange for allowing their robots to read your email and anything else in order to target ads better. This allows them to charge more for adsense since they're almost guaranteeing that their client's ads will be seen by the right audience. Basically, instead of me giving them money for their services, I'm giving them super-valuable marketing data. It's quite brilliant. You don't have earnings in the $1.2 billion category by being dumb! Unfortunately, I'd rather just pay for their services and keep my data to myself, not because I don't wish success to Google but rather because I value privacy.

I don't like the thought of some corporation knowing everything about me. It starts with phone numbers and appointment entries, but who knows what else Google will force Android users to submit to them before allowing them to use their devices in the future. Sorry if I sound like a crazy person, but it doesn't seem that far-fetched to me. Google seems relatively harmless now, but there's no guarantee that they'll keep their "do no evil" mantra forever. And if it isn't Google, it's someone knocking on Google's door (or breaking it down) demanding access to their petabytes.

I know, I know, what do I have to hide? Nothing really as far as anyone else would think (I'm probably pretty boring to most). It used to be a personal choice, but not if you want a G1.

Sorry for ranting guys, but I'm just sad that I seem to be the only one who finds this to be a deal breaker. What's even worse for me is that it sounds like this is the new norm. I'll see how long I can hold out (this crappy Samsung Blackjack isn't making things any easier either!).

-Monty

 

[pestilence]

I'm not worried. I believe google when they say they are not evil. They are probably the only company besides the one I work for that I feel that way about.

 

[OrganizedFellow]

@monty

Why not just create a new Gmail account?
Use it for these forums. Use it for a few RSS feeds. Use it for the Google Calendar.

Once you feel that your information is secure and/or that you are comfortable with the phone and the Android Terms of Service, then you can either:
1. begin to transition more of your activities to that Gmail account, or
2. wait for someone to create an app that lets us switch accounts.

 

[damnitpud]

1. I don't send anything extremely crucial to my business with Gmail or Gcal. I use my own hosted email, calendar and servers for that.
2. Anything too confidential and personal for online remains on paper.

It's THAT simple.

Hate to burst your bubble, but all email is not secure. Unless your using PGP or another encryption service for email, anyone with a packet sniffer in your area or between you and the host can get your emails and decrypt the encryption email uses.

The HTTPS is only keeps your user name and passwords safe.

 

[jgorm]

Hate to burst your bubble, but all email is not secure. Unless your using PGP or another encryption service for email, anyone with a packet sniffer in your area or between you and the host can get your emails and decrypt the encryption email uses.

The HTTPS is only keeps your user name and passwords safe.

right. And even then the government can easily break https. Thats why they made the good encryption illegal, because they could not see what you are doing! your data is only "safe" when your computer is unplugged form the ethernet cable, and the wifi is off.

 

[mswiss]

the only reason i even waited for the first google phone (which should be delivered any min!) instead of getting an iphone 3g is because i visited googles campus, all of the people there are so enthusiastic about it. also im a huge nerd and would have had to use pwng or something like that on the iphone.

google's moto is do no evil, all of there workers practiced that, i know its a slippery slope, but if theres one company that can do it, its google.

 

[Rob]

Just make a new GMail account and connect your phone with THAT and use it for nothing else. You just need GMail to initially access the phone and if you want, I'm sure 3rd party apps will fill in the gaps.

Someone above said this but, if you use your real GMail you'll be fine. You could then even have your other emails FORWARD to your GMAIL account. If it bothers you, just stop forwarding them and revert to using your old email.

The GMail account thing is the only irritation. I wonder how many typical "new" gmail sign ups google gets a day and how many they will get over the next week in comparison.

 

[monty]

Just make a new GMail account and connect your phone with THAT and use it for nothing else. You just need GMail to initially access the phone and if you want, I'm sure 3rd party apps will fill in the gaps.

Someone above said this but, if you use your real GMail you'll be fine. You could then even have your other emails FORWARD to your GMAIL account. If it bothers you, just stop forwarding them and revert to using your old email.

The GMail account thing is the only irritation. I wonder how many typical "new" gmail sign ups google gets a day and how many they will get over the next week in comparison.

Thanks for the suggestions, but I don't see how an alternate gmail account would help. Even if it's registered under a relatively anonymous name, they're still real contacts and calendar entries, associated with a real phone number. Sounds like the only way to keep my info off their servers is if I don't use any contacts, calendar, email (forwarded email to gmail is still email on gmail), etc. on my phone, which does not sound like a very good mobile experience. My crappy Win Mobile phone lets me keep all my info between my phone and any variety of servers of my choosing. Too bad it's Win Mobile

I'm hoping that the openness of Android will allow for a user to keep their information out of the cloud if they so choose--and if they have the ability to modify the source--but it doesn't sound that way. For example, much to the disappointment of several early Android app writers, Google pulled XMPP in favor of native GTalk APIs for P2P. What other open standards will they replace with their own?

I realize that I posted some serious flame-bait here, and I appreciate that the community on this forum is actually trying to help! I'm going to stay optimistic that there will be others that would like to keep their information on their personal machines and nowhere else, and that they might have some solutions at some point. For instance, if Android is going to catch on with business users, it cannot have coprorate information being relayed back to Google...employers won't approve of that. And unless Google is content with Blackberrys and Win Mobile (and now iPhone 3Gs) owning the business users, they might actually do something themselves. I'm not a business user, but my use-case is similar. We'll see, but for now I'm going to hold off.

 

[punkzanyj]

"Sounds like the only way to keep my info off their servers is if I don't use any contacts, calendar, email (forwarded email to gmail is still email on gmail), etc.on my phone"
You can turn off the automatic sync for any of the services. You'd just have to sync the first time to get the phone to work. You wouldn't just have to avoid contacts, calendar, and email, you'd also have to avoid ever using google search, blogger, picasa, feedburner, postini(which many corporations use to filter email, btw), you'd pretty much have to avoid using google, and any other search engine.

", which does not sound like a very good mobile experience."

All depends on what you want in a mobile experience. Android has offered up a very different and very specific mobile experience --- which you appear to not want. Totally your perogative.

Here's what I hear you asking: "I want a windows mobile experience, I want Windows Mobile features, windows mobile control, and windows mobile privacy --- but I want it on the Android phone, can I have it?"

The short answer is "No, it's not built that way." The long answer is, "maybe, but it's probably going to be a big hassle, and possibly not worth the trouble." That's why people are scratching their heads about this one.

To put it another way, you're asking "Can I buy a cat, but train it to behave exactly like a dog?" Again, it's possible, but what's the point?


I know people keep saying business users, business users, business users, but everything I see about this phone says to me that it does not appear to be designed for business users. There's a whole segment of the population that doesn't even know what exchange is, let alone need it on their phone. Business folks have blackberry, winmo, and (with some needling) the iPhone. Seems like the G1 was made for everyone else. But that's just my take.

Here's my question why not just stick with Winmo and seek out the tweaks and 3rd party apps that will make it more useful for you? Or switch to Blackberry? Seems like that might be an easier and more fruitful endeavor.

 

[cNo7]

having 2 close friends that work for google and even dabbled with this phone long before it got announced...i trust their "cloud"

 

[phuthanvinh]

Instead of asking a question, why not making one Gmail account? it is like you registering a new id in order to post a thread in this forum. And trust me, you will be hooked the first time you use Gmail, it's freaking awesome and I love it, it makes hotmail and yahoo look real bad (gmail is a genius in removing and preventing spam), and it's fast too. To my understanding, you don't need a data plan to use g1, if you want to connect to internet just use wifi, but it must be activated using gmail account.

 

[Deleted User]

According to your methods, i have to ask, are you the type of the person that doesn't buy anything online because you are scared of putting any "personal information"? Are you the type of person that writes all emails in encrypted messages incase big brother is watching? Its almost near the end of 2008 and this is going to be your first google account? Welcome to civilization!

at this point i'm ready to give my soul to google. Google for president!

 

[shade]

Has anyone figured out how to CHANGE the Google account that's associated with Android on the G1? I can't find an option to do this anywhere.

 

[porquepine]

Has anyone figured out how to CHANGE the Google account that's associated with Android on the G1? I can't find an option to do this anywhere.

Have heard/seen on youtube that it requires a reboot. The phone is permanently tied to the google account.

 

[gewgluvr]

Hmmm...that's too bad. I was told that all your data lives in Google's "cloud", and that you can't even save a contact or calendar entry without it living on Google's servers. Am I the only one who doesn't feel comfortable having my personal information in the cloud?

Just curious...
-Monty

What ... and you think they don't have it already?

 

[Rob]

@monty...

you need the gmail account to USE YOUR PHONE INITIALLY. I'm not suggesting you would then use your new gmail account for contacts/calendar. I'm suggesting you abandon use of the gmail account and find 3rd party apps that do the same.

They'll come... there i already support for POP3/IMAP email (although its rumored to be very flawed and problematic)

 

[cawwt]

Unless you are trying to plan a crime or a terrorist attack, why would anyone look at your personal information stored in the "cloud". I am pretty sure Google takes user privacy very seriously. So I feel safe. Plus, where else can I get reliable free stroage for my information in a mess yet very searchable format? I have been keeping all my contacts in my phones for years. Thank god, I never lost the contacts because my phone fails or get lost! Now I don't have to worry about losing my contacts anymore. Unless there's a war, a few Google datacenters where all replicas of my data happen to be at got blown up. But if that's the case, I got bigger problem to deal with.

 

[foogod]

Personally, I don't care that much about having my contacts, etc, in Google's cloud, and I do find it convenient that it's automatically backed up and available from any PC should I need it, but I can understand if other folks want to keep things more private..

And apparently so does Google, because the G1 does give you the ability to turn off this behavior if you don't want it: Go to Settings, then select "Data Synchronization", and you will see several check boxes for "Gmail", "Calendar", and "Contacts". Just Un-check the ones you don't want to sync with Google.

You will still need a Google account to use the phone, but your contact info, etc, will stay on the phone and not be uploaded to Google's servers.

 

[Scamp]

Thats why they made the good encryption illegal, because they could not see what you are doing! your data is only "safe" when your computer is unplugged form the ethernet cable, and the wifi is off.

Can you possibly supply a reference for that statement? My understanding was that all encryption is legal (unless you are not in the USA).

 

[mechanicalmind]

it seems no one answered your question:

yes it is possible to use the G1 without signing in. of course you have to log in with A gmail accont when you first set the phone up. when i bought mine, the lady at the store put her account in there. she didn't give me her password, so I used it for a couple of days with my email, made calls, used the web, etc. but couldn't figure out why i couldn't use the ANDROID MARKET.... yep you guessed it, there are a few features that NEED you to be logged into a gmail account to use.

so yea, i had to format the device to change the google account to mine. sigh. life in the cloud. just get a 'pay as you go' phone to do all your nefarious stuff.

soon... hopefully someone will make some proxy app that will allow us to surf anonymously.... but i'm not holding my breath....remember: this is google; a company that makes it their mission to find out WHO you are and WHAT you want.

mech