[google-serf]

Right now I'm pretty over google. I just learned today that they went back on their word that my cell phone number would only be used for account recovery; and against my wishes started using it so any android handsets could find my email and real name should they care to cross reference against my number. I watched as a blank android handset pull my personal information when I dialed it. Then they didn't give me an opportunity to opt out, because you can only opt out if you have a google plus account. The option to hide the number does not appear. No. Google doesn't win everything, they lost the battle when they got loose with our personal data. They were always an advertising company, rotten and corrupt to its core. I don't care if they have a million billion talented staff and all the money in the world. They are ethically bankrupt and their rein will end like all other great tyrants in the past. Screw you google.

[dredmorbius]

I'm totally with you. I stopped using G+ under my given name after a couple of weeks in 2011. I've since found it's barely to be trusted even pseudonymously, and the same phone number issue you mentioned is one that I looked at and bailed on when presented it for: password recovery, two factor auth, and later as a sweetner for a personalized URL.

I'm clearing my posts from G+ and largely using it as a glorified Twitter. May nuke it altogether. My trust in the company is now zilch for precisely the reasons you state.

[magicalist]

This article is kind of dumb and your comment is irrelevant to it, and this submission is already getting bombed off the front page, but:

a) they're pretty clear on how recovery numbers are used1[1], so honestly, I'm somewhat skeptical of your claim, but regardless:

b) you can easily change that setting, and no you don't need a g+ account. I found it in like 30 seconds. Just go to your account settings[2] and click the box with your phone number on it. The option is right there. In fact, the help page even explicitly mentions this is independent of any Google+ use of your phone number[3].

[1] https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/183728?hl=en&ref_...

[2] https://www.google.com/settings/

[3] https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3113316

[google-serf]

A) my claim is accurate. I was told it was used for account recovery. It is clearly been used to correlate with a google profile. This was opt-out and I didn't actually catch it in nov 2013 when the tech media had a cry about it. Their support article you gave mentioned is a lie, they are clearly using recovery numbers to populate their bullshit caller ID system.

B) the option is NOT there if you do not have a google plus account. Do you need me to screenshot it? If you see the word "hangout" near the mobile number you have google plus account. I had one option, remove recovery number. There was no opt-out "help others find me" tick. Didn't exist. I have no "hangout" settings. Somehow my google account must be in some kind of limbo where I'm not actually using other google services.

Your only option was to purge the number from account recovery, which I have done. My name and "YouTube" picture still appear on android handsets without an explicit contact. It's probably cached like that iPhone to android iMessage case recently.

[Shooti]

On B, "Hangouts" and the opt out check box on that page only appears if you've previously opted in by saying yes to the "help my friends find me on google services/Confirm my number with a 1 time SMS" prompt either via Hangouts, or the Google Dialer in KitKat via a Nexus device. Otherwise it just shows Account Recovery, or nothing at all with no Phone number. The feature is opt-in, not opt-out.

As for your name and number showing up, to double check the obvious make sure the handset you tested on wasn't sync'd to Google allowing it to auto-populate the automated on-Device "Me" contact entry with your pic. If it was someone else's Google account synced phone, they have you in a Google Contacts entry w/ an email address, since that would pull in your pic and make it accessible to the dialer. That's their prerogative, not yours.

[google-serf]

Ok, I've never opted in to has hangouts. Every example of the tick box i could find in images had a hangouts option. I understand if it is not related but it was worth mentioning.

It was not my phone, it was a friends who had started from a fresh android 4.4 install. There was no google contact sync. Even if the contact sync was in place, it would be unlikely that the other party would have used my 5 year old YouTube avatar and populated it with both my email and phone number and full name. If my contact on his google side was populated from my gmail; as I have emailed the other party before, it shouldn't contain my phone number either - unless google matched it and shared.

Something went wrong. I think my account is an edge case and I was opted into a service (you are dickheads. Opt out is always evil.) and because I had not consumed enough other services my account was not given the option to opt out. Point remains, google matched my recovery number with my profile, which they said they wouldn't. I can't see any other explanation.

[Shooti]

> Even if the contact sync was in place, it would be unlikely that the other party would have used my 5 year old YouTube avatar and populated it with both my email and phone number and full name.If my contact on his google side was populated from my gmail; as I have emailed the other party before, it shouldn't contain my phone number either - unless google matched it and shared.

I'll repeat my alternate explanation more concretely: the name and the Youtube pic was auto-synced via @GMail, and your friend just manually added your phone number to it. It's now permanently in his Gmail account as part of Google Contacts, independent of anything done on Google's part.

Get your friend to delete his contact of you from the address book ("People") and see if it occurs again.

[mikeash]

Have you ruled out the various other ways that the phone could potentially turn your phone number into your name?

[google-serf]

Blank android 4.4 phone. 0 contacts. Not my phone. Not possible to get it anywhere but google. It even had a YouTube avatar I have not used for 5 years or so. It was from there.

[mark_l_watson]

I agree with the privacy concerns. That said, I tend to use G+, Twitter, and FB only to post links to new content on my own web site - very useful use case for these 'social' web sites. I also use a separate browser for just Google, Twitter, and FB.