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Google faces backlash over expanding identity verification and face capture requirements, prompting users to abandon Google Search and switch from Gmail to Proton.

What happened

Post: "Google now offering selfie verification, with a video showing different angles of your face"

Source

RedditOct 31, 2026By u/New-Maintenance9668

r/privacy

Google now offering selfie verification, with a video showing different angles of your face

upvotes
158
comments
34

Extracted from these lines

  • [comment u/ShadowsGuardian] Just another reason why I changed to proton email recently...

  • [comment u/deaglebingo] google is just ensuring that i don't ever use google anymore. their loss. lemme put it this way... if i get a captcha on a google search i'm typing duck dot com or whatever else in the bar and not even doing the captcha let alone face verification.

reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1xjwewn/google_now_offering_selfie_veri...Open the source

Comments on the post

5 of 34 comments
  • “This should be extremely illegal for Google to do, along with arresting any politician trying to encourage this.”

    u/EmbarrassedHelp124 points · Oct 31, 2026View

  • “The only selfie they will be getting is of my balls in different angles, so tired of all these Face ID bullshit.”

    u/SeengignPaipes111 points · Oct 31, 2026View

  • “Age verification is what data hoarding tech companies were hoping for. Mandatory feeding of our private data to them to prove we are adults. This is absolute fucking bullshit.”

    u/StaticSystemShock53 points · Oct 31, 2026View

  • “i really want us to start doing something like actively getting rid of this stupid age varification stuff PLEASE. it will get far FAR worse censorship is a domino effect”

    u/Quinn771132 points · Oct 31, 2026View

  • “"offering" like we should be grateful...”

    u/femmes-je-nous-aime27 points · Oct 31, 2026View

Extracted by Autobound

From the Signal API record
Signal
Customer feedback

What this signalsUser posts often show product pain before it reaches reviews or churn.

Subreddit
r/privacy
Stage
Switched
Event date
Oct 2026

Companies

  • ProtonAlso named
  • DuckDuckGoAlso named

The full record

From the Signal API record

Numbers

Mentions
78

Details

Timing
Ongoing state
Category
Security
Virality
High
Post kind
Link
Prominence
Core
Company's role
Vendor

Topics and mentions

Topics

  • churn
  • privacy
  • email
  • search

Flair

  • news

Products named

  • Google Search
  • Gmail

Extraction

Sentiment
Negative
Detected
Oct 31, 2026
signal_type
reddit-company
signal_subtype
customerFeedback

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The API returns more than this page shows

This page shows a preview. The full reddit-company record in the Signal API and MCP can also have these 8 fields. Some fields are empty for some signals.

Company

  • linkedin_urlValue in the API
  • industriesValue in the API
  • employee_count_lowValue in the API
  • employee_count_highValue in the API
  • revenueValue in the API
  • descriptionValue in the API

Signal

  • signal_nameValue in the API
  • associationValue in the API
Show the full JSONThe record on this page and the API request

GET /v1/signals/54c13eb4-d074-587e-a19c-d9f6df49fa41 returns this record as JSON. POST /v1/companies/enrich returns every signal for google.com.

{
  "signal_id": "54c13eb4-d074-587e-a19c-d9f6df49fa41",
  "signal_type": "reddit-company",
  "signal_subtype": "customerFeedback",
  "detected_at": "2026-10-31T00:41:16+00:00",
  "company": {
    "name": "Google",
    "domain": "google.com"
  },
  "data": {
    "nsfw": false,
    "stage": "switched",
    "awards": 0,
    "timing": "ongoing_state",
    "topics": [
      "churn",
      "privacy",
      "email",
      "search"
    ],
    "post_id": "1xjwewn",
    "summary": "Google faces backlash over expanding identity verification and face capture requirements, prompting users to abandon Google Search and switch from Gmail to Proton.",
    "category": "security",
    "comments": [
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1xjwewn/comment/19rws00oenw82/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 124,
        "author": "EmbarrassedHelp",
        "excerpt": "This should be extremely illegal for Google to do, along with arresting any politician trying to encourage this.",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-31T03:04:07.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/EmbarrassedHelp/"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1xjwewn/comment/19rwmavo1qc4k/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 111,
        "author": "SeengignPaipes",
        "excerpt": "The only selfie they will be getting is of my balls in different angles, so tired of all these Face ID bullshit.",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-31T00:56:21.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/SeengignPaipes/"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1xjwewn/comment/19rx0gjlgrdgk/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 53,
        "author": "StaticSystemShock",
        "excerpt": "Age verification is what data hoarding tech companies were hoping for. Mandatory feeding of our private data to them to prove we are adults. This is absolute fucking bullshit.",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-31T06:13:46.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/StaticSystemShock/"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1xjwewn/comment/19rx14xdzytid/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 32,
        "author": "Quinn7711",
        "excerpt": "i really want us to start doing something like actively getting rid of this stupid age varification stuff PLEASE. it will get far FAR worse censorship is a domino effect",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-31T06:28:57.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/Quinn7711/"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1xjwewn/comment/19rx4iczn5p0h/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 27,
        "author": "femmes-je-nous-aime",
        "excerpt": "\"offering\" like we should be grateful...",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-31T07:44:35.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/femmes-je-nous-aime/"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1xjwewn/comment/19rxlgixuwe03/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 26,
        "author": "deaglebingo",
        "excerpt": "google is just ensuring that i don't ever use google anymore. their loss.\n\n lemme put it this way... if i get a captcha on a google search i'm typing duck dot com or whatever else in the bar and not even doing the captcha let alone face verification.",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-31T14:04:35.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/deaglebingo/"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1xjwewn/comment/19rxij5bewp2b/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 7,
        "author": "SuspiciousCricket654",
        "excerpt": "The offering will turn into a obligation. Mark my words.",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-31T12:58:57.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/SuspiciousCricket654/"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1xjwewn/comment/19rxwo9a4ngte/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 4,
        "author": "ShadowsGuardian",
        "excerpt": "Just another reason why I changed to proton email recently... And yet, another crap CEO.\n\n Are we just doomed to products becoming shit if enough time passes?",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-31T18:16:01.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/ShadowsGuardian/"
      }
    ],
    "evidence": [
      "[comment u/ShadowsGuardian] Just another reason why I changed to proton email recently...",
      "[comment u/deaglebingo] google is just ensuring that i don't ever use google anymore. their loss. lemme put it this way... if i get a captcha on a google search i'm typing duck dot com or whatever else in the bar and not even doing the captcha let alone face verification."
    ],
    "link_url": "https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/16675622?hl=en&ai1hc=1",
    "virality": "high",
    "post_date": "2026-10-31T00:41:16.000Z",
    "post_kind": "link",
    "sentiment": "negative",
    "subreddit": "privacy",
    "event_date": "2026-10",
    "post_flair": [
      "news"
    ],
    "post_title": "Google now offering selfie verification, with a video showing different angles of your face",
    "prominence": "core",
    "source_url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1xjwewn/google_now_offering_selfie_verification_with_a/",
    "entity_role": "vendor",
    "post_author": "New-Maintenance9668",
    "upvote_ratio": 0.9293478260869565,
    "mention_count": 78,
    "mention_surge": true,
    "subreddit_url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/",
    "total_upvotes": 158,
    "comments_total": 34,
    "total_comments": 34,
    "event_date_text": "recently",
    "other_companies": [
      {
        "name": "Proton",
        "role": "switching_to",
        "domain": "proton.me"
      },
      {
        "name": "DuckDuckGo",
        "role": "alternative",
        "domain": "duckduckgo.com"
      }
    ],
    "post_author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/New-Maintenance9668/",
    "signal_category": "feedback",
    "comments_included": 9,
    "products_mentioned": [
      "Google Search",
      "Gmail"
    ]
  }
}

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