Perils of Password Protection

Ethan, alas, has forgotten the password for his gmail account, which means that he is currently locked out of both his email and his blogs. He made the mistake of changing his password shortly before we went on our vacation, then couldn't remember the new one when he got back (having done the same thing a couple of times with my computer password at work, I can certainly sympathize).

The prospects for recovering his account look somewhat dim at this point; there are lots of nice things to say about Google mail, but one thing that they definitely don't do especially well is provide effective help for people who are locked out of their accounts.

To certain degree, you have to sympathize with the Googlers (Googlites? Googlians?). When they receive an email from some unknown person Fred Smith saying "I have forgotten the password for my account flortzblatch@gmail.com, please change it so that I can log back in", it puts them in a difficult position. There is no way for the Googlers to figure out whether Fred is really the owner of the account, as opposed to someone who simply wants to break in or co-opt the account in some way. I have heard stories about people to try to send in copies of their drivers licenses, but even there it doesn't always help (proving that you are indeed Fred Smith doesn't mean that you are the true owner of a given account).

On the other hand, it's not much fun for Ethan-- this may turn out to be one of those unpleasant "learning experiences". I also bear some of the blame, since when I created the account for him, I didn't set up an alternate email. Oops. Sounds like I have some learning to do as well.

[Update: Ethan was able to finally get back into his account-- his special "security" question eventually bailed him out. -NM]