I’ve had a nagging frustration in my otherwise perfect relationship with Google Voice. The service systematically replaces my friend’s phone numbers with their Google Voice numbers when they call, even when they aren’t calling from Google Voice. Not only has this led to a lot of confusing and time wasting “how did you get my Google Voice phone number?” conversations, it is a clear violation of Google’s own privacy policy.
Here’s how this works: Let’s say you signed up for Google Voice sometime in the past. The main benefit of Google Voice is that it forwards calls to your other phones – the whole “one number for life” thing. So you probably told Google Voice a few of your other phone numbers – home, work, mobile, etc. And then perhaps you stopped using the service after testing it.
Now if you call my Google Voice number from any of those real phone numbers that you told Google about, the caller ID and archived information on Google Voice (missed and received calls, voicemails) says your Google Voice number, not the number you are calling from.
That creates confusion. If I have your mobile number stored in my phone, it doesn’t recognize the Google Voice caller ID and I tend to ignore the call. Then I read the transcribed voicemail and realize it’s someone I know. I check my address book and the number isn’t right, though. I add the new number and maybe delete the old one, thinking you’ve changed phones. It’s a mess.
Inbound text messages have the same problem. And if I return the text message and you don’t have the feature turned on to your real mobile phone, you won’t get them. Or at least I think this is what happens. It’s all very confusing.
I get why Google is doing this. They want people who have Google Voice to use that number, and this is a helpful way of pushing the issue. It’s free marketing, and there is a logic behind the “feature,” too.
But just because someone gives me one of their phone numbers doesn’t mean they want to give me their Google Voice number. Maybe they abandoned the service. Or maybe they just don’t want me to have that number.
What if you sent me an email from your work account to my Gmail account, and Google automatically changed the from address to your Gmail account? This is a direct analogy to what’s happening with Google Voice.
And it’s a clear violation of Google’s privacy policy, which states:
Information sharing
Google only shares personal information with other companies or individuals outside of Google in the following limited circumstances:
- We have your consent. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.
- We provide such information to our subsidiaries, affiliated companies or other trusted businesses or persons for the purpose of processing personal information on our behalf. We require that these parties agree to process such information based on our instructions and in compliance with this Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
- We have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or (d) protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public as required or permitted by law.
None of these exceptions apply here. Google needs to add an opt in for this feature, and do a better job of syncing these calls in my address book, or abandon the practice.
Update: I’ve spoken with Google Voice cofounder Vincent Paquet this morning, who says that this is a feature of SMS but should not be happening with voice. I can verify the issue with SMS last night, and I can’t say with certainty that the previous times that I’ve noticed the issue it involved a voice call, not just SMS (its all one big inbox on Google Voice and voicemails are transcribed, so things aren’t segmented like the old days). Also the problem did not occur in a test call this morning with Vincent from a land line. Google Voice will change the SMS feature to opt-in, they say, and are looking into the voice issue.
On the one hand this makes the issue less severe if only SMS is affected. But it also means that for friends that I talk to and SMS with things can get really confusing with multiple phone numbers showing up in Google Voice.
I think we will see that fixed in few hours as Google Team surely will be reading this post.
Regards,
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
Typhoon a.k.a Sushant
i think the right fix might just giving me an opt in to share my GV number with others even if i call from a different phone. And then having the recipient get a notification that the person has a GV number and would you like to add it to contacts? or just kill it.
This comment looks half like spam.
When commenting, there is a field named “Website” use that instead of spreading URL shit all over your comment.
Manish I agree with you 100%.
Or, get rid of of the website/twitter linkage all together, and it check to not allow any http or www or anything in the comments. DONE, goodbye spam.
There are times I need to link someone on youtube but cannot because it thinks I am a spammer.
I don’t want tc to turn into that.
+++
Oups your forgot the google dashboard launch as a google private investigator: GOOGLE DASHBOARD on each one’s browser history..
source: http://bit.ly/g...er-spy-by-big-g
now, that seems a little bit creepy to me
… but I like it this way.
……its still in beta. Do you know what beta means? Also not sure if your gv number actually belongs to you, so maybe this isn’t breaking their policy. More research maybe? Your seeming a bit like foxnews right now.
“Google only shares personal information with other companies or individuals outside of Google in the following limited circumstances…”
But a friend’s GV number is a personal information too, only that it gets shared with or whithout a user’s consent. Just because someone gives one of their phone numbers doesn’t mean they want to share their Google Voice number too.
No, they can’t hide behind “beta.” Beta isn’t excuse for privacy violations, exploits, and lots of crap. They slap “beta” on things and leave it for the better part of a decade.
Back in the day when something was beta it was feature complete, and was in final bug crunching mode. It means something entirely else to Google.
yup, “beta” is not what it used to mean, at least for Google. advantageous to Google because (1) no commonly-accepted need to fix bugs or finish features; (2) release product early to capture user interest; (3) let user community help define the finished product; (4) get free help from developer community
Yeah, for Google “beta” means finished, “preview” means beta and “developer preview” means alpha.
good catch! i agree there ought be a chance to control what number is used for caller id/reply in the settings.
I’ve got this but never blog about it. I know google will fix it.
<– spam
Thanks, Sherlock!
I agree to an opt-in solution. I think google has become very aware and cautios about privacy-issues. I would expect a fix soon, too.
scientology banners?
I love google services. Google is slowly moving to ruling the world by getting their service area to people’s real life. Probably Google often goes crazy for this and as a result does mistakes like this. I expect a fix soon.
I’ve seen some other posts on this topic. But Google surely didn’t read them. Herein lies the ruling part of established blog or websites.
http://www.aisajib.com
Agree with Arrington on this one. At best, it is confusing and annoying.
On balance, I agree.
But “at best” it means (assuming I have GV configured correctly) that if I call a friend from my home number and then go out, he can use caller ID to return the call to my GV number, reach me at my mobile phone and save us both some time. This is probably want Google had in mind, and it will be very convenient for some, including me.
At least Google gives you control over what happens when someone calls that GV number. You can have it ring only 1 of your phones, send it right to voicemail, even give the caller a specific voicemail message, or block it altogether.
dude didn’t you dump your iphone because of google voice?? LOL!
and your point is ?
A rather small issue given all the advantages GV gives its users.
Fanboi.
“Fanboi”
I’m not sure anon, if dumped the iPhone for GV and he thinks (as shaun suggests) that this makes GV sh*t it doesn’t say a lot good about the iPhone does it?
I think it’s funny because of the rant against apple and the iPhone when Michael dumped it. All crap he spewed about apples closed system and lack of transparency. Google does no evil – lol. My point is no system is perfect and all you idiots that behave like red state and blue state demogogs are just a waste of space and resources on this planet… The only option is a public option that includes a womans choice and makes antitrust laws apply to insurance companies.
It just shows objectiveness and a lack of “fanboyism”.
Shaun, you are silly.
Another issue is that on the g/voice webpage you can’t remove numbers from the autocomplete in the call/sms drop downs.
They seem to be populated on the servers and sometimes, for whatever reason, you don’t want a number to appear. But alas, no way to remove.
All you have to do is remove that phone from the pool of phones you registered with Google Voice.
If you don’t want to use Google Voice, you need to unregister your phones from the GV website. That way these cool features can be kept by the people that actually want them.
Btw, to the last comment, I wrote a blog post on how to setup Google Voice with the iPhone with no app and no jailbreaking in 5 steps – http://bhbeak.c...ne-without-app/
I’ve made the switch on the iPhone and haven’t missed a single voicemail, text message or phone call.
I agree. I really don’t understand what’s the articles point.
If you signed up with that phone number it supposed to show everywhere until you delete it from GV numbers.
That’s the whole point of GV that you don’t reveal your real numbers, but show only GV number.
You can’t say that the person “stoped” using the service until they remove those phone numbers and remove their account.
Great post and you are exactly right. I’ve had the same issue, but hadn’t thought about the policy angle.
How the heck did you think of that at 3 a.m.?
think scheduled future post.
or that he can’t sleep because google voice is in the header of his text.
To my surprise, it does work this way – I texted a friend’s google voice # from my cell and it showed up on his side as my gv #… This is an unwanted “feature” for many of us – some people might want it to work this way. I however, don’t – it took a few minutes, but I figured out something that works for me. In google voice web app, make sure the “Receive SMS on this phone” box is unchecked under the cell phone that you are sending from. Now I can send sms msgs from my cell phone to a friends GV # and have it show up as my cell phone #. I’m not sure about the calling though.. When I call my friends GV # it shows up as my cell, so that part works ok. Having the GV apps on my droid gives me better flexibility than some perhaps, but I still think Google needs to explain this better and make it more configurable.
You have to opt-in to this configuration. It is something you can change in the settings.
I agree with Mike. Very, very lame of the GV folks. There already is the GV app on Android that can make it appear that a call is coming thru GV if that is what you want…..
To be fair, Google may technically have your “consent” if they mention this in the terms-of-use when you sign up for Google Voice (I don’t know if they do or not). If that is the case, this wouldn’t be a violation of Google’s privacy policy.
That said, it’s still a dumb “feature.” Because of the huge risk of annoyance it should be better publicized and should ideally be a per-user setting.
Michael,
This is not intended. We do have this feature for SMS (and we’re making it a user setting), but NOT for calls.
I just called your Google Voice number from one of my forwading phones. Let me know if it displayed my Google Voice number or that forwarding phone.
Thanks
Vincent Paquet
Google Voice
Boy I wish I could get someone from Google to respond to me in about 4 hours with a single blog post!
Vincent, tried calling you back but it went to VM. the number I saw was the 408 number.
Vincent, I updated the post. Apologies for the confusion. I’m assuming at this point that this only applies to SMS, not voice. That’s good, although it makes things confusing when I have a contact that I both talk to and SMS with.
Anyway, corrected the error.
I’ve got an even bigger issue then the one here, I’m trying out the Google VM feature for my cell phone number and if I don’t answer a call it forwards to someone else’s phone, not Google Voice to take the voice mail. I emailed tips@techcrunch.com
Hey Mike,
I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one to notice this. I think the opt in solution is probably the simplest, most straight forward way to implement.
When you’re done with this issue, can you tackle this one: http://pogue.bl...you-charge-now/
I would really like to see you put your weight behind this issue. Go from “techcrunch” to “consumer-protection-superhero-crunch”.
I’m not too concerned with the policy thing as many companies violate their own terms and thats a wholly different issue (that needs legal remedy). Furthermore, using any service online or software; you do so under terms you have no control over if you “want” or “need” to use that product. Especially if it’s a unique product/service. I highly doubt that we all read or fully understand the EULA’s or Terms Of Service Agreements we are bombarded with in our daily computing. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, so…..
Is the above not the option that may or may not be working as expected? Is it all about the Caller ID in Google Voice? As other posters have pointed out this is a Beta, as it’s not fully released to the public. I personally just set this up about 30 mins ago so finding this post was interesting to me but I’m not sure if it’s completely accurate as it’s the first I’ve read of this. ^_^
This is just my 2 cents
Sorry here is the missing metioned link:
http://picasawe...feat=directlink
Google is also doing weird stuff with YouTube user recommendations. I logged into YouTube last night and in the box on the front page where it says “Find your friends on YouTube!” it showed 3 people I know and beside their name it says (Gmail). I have these 3 people in my address book, but I do not have their Gmail addresses, and they don’t have my Gmail address.
I’m guessing Google is looking at the “secondary” or “alternate” email address on those users’ accounts and noticing those are the addresses I have.
Anyone else noticed this?
Maybe, in the future, they’ll offer the same feature they do with Gmail, by which they allow you to choose a custom return address (so long as it belongs to a real, active email account), other than your Gmail address.
I don’t see why it would be difficult for them to do the same with your Google Voice number. They could always send a text and have you respond to ensure it’s a real number and it’s yours, similar to how they check your custom return email addy.
Google – forget phone numbers. I want the following: if some one calls me and if they have encoded their credit card number under google-checkout, please SMS this information to me.
I need a few credit cards a day to survive. No one will mind, trust me…..
Ok, I’m not sure how this adds to the conversation on the issue :/ But you sorta make a point
With the launch of Google Dashboard, Google was finally trying to take steps to be more transparent about its privacy policies – something they have not been good at doing. But such a violation of their own privacy policy is cause for concern.
For me I don’t want any of my contacts to know anything but my Google Voice #.
If they did then…
1. They’d send SMS(s) to my cellphone # & I get charged.
2. I have AT&T’s 5 fav phone # plan and the only # I have entered there is my Google Voice #, thus making all my calls free.
Each to his own but I like saving money & free stuff!
Thanks for explaining that. Have seen the behavior and never put 2+2 together. You’re right, it sucks and there is really no benefit to either party. Hope the GV folks change it.
Those who are hating Google and Google Voice, there is a suggestion for you all haters. Stop using it but let others who want this service to use it. If you have problems with using Google Voice, simply stop using it that is the best solution you can ever have.
what if i love it but want it to be better?
Indeed Michael, this is the point of this post and discussion…
@Mike “Those who are hating Google and Google Voice, there is a suggestion for you all haters. Stop using it but let others who want this service to use it.”
I don’t think it’s truly about “haters” per se but more about frustration with companies that do things that can impact us all, the users and non-users of a particular service or product. Google Voice and other related products are often ‘work in progress’ and we should understand that. We all take risks at having our privacy rights violated (inadvertently or otherwise) so, yeah it’s sorta something we have to deal with. That being said, companies need to be more vigilant on this front and work with users to build in a sense, a better mouse trap.
To say “Stop using it but let others who want this service to use it.” is being unrealistic and argumentative frankly, unhelpful. It’s not at all about who ‘wants’ to use it or who ‘doesn’t’ want to use it, it’s about how if it works and how it impacts the people that we communicate with (Google and non-Google Voice users). Without meaningful criticism how can/will/could Google or any company for that matter improve the users experience and product functionality.
Again, just my 2 cents
@arrington. If you really love it and want it better. Follow the url below and suggest it in “I have another idea” link on the page. Instead of posting on a third party website I think it would be appropriate to post it on Google Voice suggestion link and it will go directly to the Google Voice software engineers who have been trying hard to make this free service better and more user-friendly. I have seen people complaining about the feature without realizing the fact that Google Voice service is free, one more time I repeat it is free. Other service providers do not provide services for free. They are making money.
gosh, thanks for being the voice of reason.
The following is the link:
http://www.goog...=suggestions.cs
As someone who uses Google Voice as my primary number (and use a throwaway cell phone number), I actually like that they do this. This makes it so I can just call someone using my native iphone dialer (which would ordinarily show them my throwaway number) and not have to explain to them that the number I am calling from is not my number, that they don’t need to update their records, etc..
So this is a bug for people who don’t use google voice as their primary number, and a feature for those who do.
They should probably just make it an option you can select.
good point.
Good catch… even if it is only affecting SMS, the confusion is definitely and issue. Also, I am one of the people who DO NOT want my Google Voice number to be my Caller ID for multiple reasons.
I love using my Google Voice numbers. And those are who have cell phone number when they call me it gets forwarded to my Google Voice number, thanks to Google Voice for introducing *28 feature on Sprint network for conditional call forwarding and thanks to Sprint as they made *28 feature totally free without charging for per minute or without using any time minutes. I love it. Now all my calls are routed to Google Voice no matter what.
What is this *28 Sprint feature that you speak of?
Not much luck in Googling the answer.
Never mind. Duh.
http://www.goog...om/voice/sprint
“Google only shares personal information with other companies or individuals outside of Google in the following limited circumstances:
We have your consent. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.” — They need to apply this logic to Google Maps Street View.
The greatest confusion (and problem) that I see here is that suppose I setup my work number on GV (so my friends and/or my co-workers can reach me whenever), then call my customer/supplier/whatever-work-related on their GV number. Now when my customer/supplier/whatever-work-related who happens to be in the +12 timezone difference calls me back believing he’s calling my work number to leave a message gets to unsuspectingly wake me up in the middle of the night by ringing my home phone. This would make it very easy to loose control over the utility of the whole GV, with no easy way to separate work-time from play-time.
As others suggested, this feature should to be opt-in, and better yet, configurable on a group-basis. My friends get my GV number, whereas everyone else gets originating number.
@Lonchik. You can use Custom schedule and add or change the time range in Phone settings for that particular phone i.e home/cell and work phone.
Apple was right! Google Voice does cause user confusion!
I just noticed this happening (and had one of those confusing how-did-you-get-my-GV-number messages via SMS) this week. thanks for calling them and getting them to default to opt in. that’s excellent journalism.
I reported the bug when I finally opened my gv account 10/4/2009. I worked around the issue by changing the registered phone type to “Home”. Now, the only number seen is the number from which I am calling. I like the gv number for resumes and places that require a phone number, but don’t necessarily want them to have my mobile number.
Thanks for this interesting information.
I use Google Voice. It has a better voice quality than Skype.
But I think that Google knows exactly what is on.
I agree that they use this issue for marketing.
They changed this, and now it’s an option. SMS only.
http://googlevo...ogle-voice.html