One thing to call out is that this is true for consumer created Meet calls, but not for G Suite/Workspace created Meet calls. Users w/o a Google account can join those calls by “knocking” and being accepted to the call (by the organizer or a user on the same domain) [1]. There's also a dial-in by phone option.
Seems like Google is making a new push for people to be logged in at all times. Youtube nags me continually to log in when I watch videos on the website, pausing the video to display a pop up and then restarting from the beginning even if I had a timestamp in the URL.
Well, so ends Meet's use by sales folks and conferences. The friction to require the use of account is a turn off for many situations. Heck, even when I have an account on some of these services, I might not login when sent an invite. Friction is a killer.
TLS not E2E. When Zoom got called out for lying about having E2E [0], I looked into the landscape around this a bit. Facetime and Signal are E2E, but don't support recording, which would of course need to be on-device if implemented.
Does the distinction matter? I think so. There's a big difference between the provider promising to keep your data secure and to not do anything underhanded with it versus the provider simply not having access to your data.
Really, a ding here? I thought HN was where you go to discuss what's actually going on under the hood, not so much "now you need a Google account", which will surface itself in your general tech news feed. Hmm. I hope we don't go the way of Slashdot. What a sad decline that was. Where Google comes down on TLS vs E2E is a BFD.
I am no Google apologist, but I don’t see anything wrong with this. It’s an increasingly common thing from many companies in response to GDPR and CCPA.
The theory (which isn’t backed by case law yet) is that if a user signs up for an account of some kind, a much wider set of tracking data is lawful to collect under the sections of these laws that provide for “necessary” data collection for the operation of the service.
Lots of data capture is argued to be required for managing the user session and measuring product usage, both of which are much harder to justify if the user is anonymous.
Many companies are moving account sign up as a required step earlier in all funnel or free tier user experiences as a result.
Btw, I didn't mention GSuite. I tested with personal accounts. Which is why I posted 'You can no longer join any Google Meet session without a Google account'
Great. As if using the G Suite for work wasn't a complete hassle already, this will really make setting up meeting with business partners easy. Seriously, G Suite is one of the worst tools I am forced to use. I HATE it.
[1] https://support.google.com/a/answer/7582940#top&privacy&encr...
[Edit to clarify wording and add citation to Workspace specific HC article]