Log out of Gmail

[Bozo the Flying Monkey]

I suppose this question has been asked, but I couldn't find much by searching.

I've been using gmail for over 5 years and just got an HTC Incredible, my first android phone.

My question has to do with how it handles gmail syncing and integration. Why was it designed to not allow you to log out of gmail or even to require password to access it?

For me the level of privacy I place of my phone is not the same as my email. Just like my laptop, I can let a friend browse the web on my laptop, but I wouldn't leave my email open. With this phone I don't have that option and for me personally it is the only disappointment I have with the phone. But it is big enough for me that I immediately reset the phone, and did a new set up with a dummy gmail account. Upon realizing there's no way to log out I felt trapped and betrayed. Those may sound like an exaggeration, but I'm gotten to trust google and having my emails exposed like that was not reassuring at all. I'm still considering returning the phone and going with something else.

Am I along in this?

Is this the best way to handle gmail syncing for everybody?

Is there a technical reason there can't be a option to require password for Gmail?

Is there some wisdom behind it that I just don't know enough to grasp?

 

[eudaemon]

You enter your password when you first set up the phone. It's used by GMail, Contacts, Calendar, GTalk, and other Google services, so it's integrated at an OS level. Because most, if not all, of these services use Push technology (for example, if you get an email sent to your GMail account, your phone should tell you about it immediately). It wouldn't be able to do this if you would have to enter a password each time as essentially you would need to be always logged in to these services.

Are you alone with feeling like that? I don't know - but I've never heard of anyone else complaining about it.

The is ample security on the phone to prevent access from someone who just randomly picks up your phone - Pattern Lock for example.

If you choose to allow other people to use your phone, then surely you trust them not go to running your GMail app? If someone had access to your laptop could then not just run Outlook or Windows Mail or whatever and see your email, or what's already been downloaded at least, in just the same way?

 

[littlemonkey882]

Thanks for your quick response extorian. I now understand why you need to be logged in for push technology to work at all times. Still, I don't understand why I can't have the option to logout at will.

I tried the Pattern Lock. It's not a satisfactory workaround because it means I have to constantly unlock to use it just so I can protect my emails in some rare instances. I don't see how that makes the user experience better than the option to log out of gmail even if push technology doesn't work while you remain logged out.

That I can only let people I'd trust with my email use my phone is just silly. First, that decision should be left up to me as the owner of the phone. Second, I can think of dozens of scenarios where lending my phone to someone I hardly know and allowing them to walk away for privacy would be the right thing to do. I've been an exhibitor at a trade show on the phone with the office when they ask to speak to my coworker, I hand her my phone and they walk away from the booth as a courtesy to the customers. Or say your child or niece grabs your phone while you're in the shower and sees an email inappropriate for their age.

In the laptop scenario I have the option of logging out of my gmail, outlook, etc. I also have the option of requiring a password to access them. That is exactly the problem with the phone. I don't have either of those options.

This is the only device I've used that - without warning - allows you to log in to a password protected service and doesn't give you the option to log out, ever. That goes against the whole concept of what I understand a password to be for anyway.

Unless it is technologically impossible, I can't see how not giving me the option to either require password or be able to log out at will makes the phone better. The bottom line is I'm an avid Gmail user and a huge Google fan and I expected an Android phone would be a great integration with my Gmail. It is dissappointing having to instead integrate with a dummy Gmail account.

 

[atOmsOn]

Yeah - you're right, a log out would be nice. But there is another reason I forgot to mention. The standard way to protect your phone if it's stolen is to change your GMail password via the website. This almost immediately prevents access to personal information on your phone. On many phones, it won't even restart until the correct password is entered. Of course there are ways around it... but still, it protects your data to some degree.

I absolutely would never give my phone to someone I hardly know, and certainly not allow them to walk away from me with it. People use this trick all the time to steal phones. If it's an emergency I can make the call to the emergency services. In the situation you describe, it sounds like you would know the person, and I doubt they'd start snooping through your phone. If you know them well enough to extend the level our courtesy to them to allow them a private conversation using your smartphone, then surely you'd know them well enough to not snoop through your phone. Or keep them in sight but out of hearing range? It would be obvious if they stood there staring at your phone screen for ages and using the interface as opposed to holding it to their ear for a conversation.

I agree about the children thing, but again it's up to the adults to protect them from such things. This is why satellite TV and broadband routers have parental controls. If you choose not to use them and children see stuff they shouldn't, whose fault is it? Similarly if you leave your phone around and don't use a pattern lock...?

Logging out isn't sufficient protection anyway. What about the gallery and all those naughty pics of your partner? Or the pictures from "interesting websites" you've saved? What about apps you may have downloaded that are adult themed? There are loads of games and adult apps on the Market. What about the Browser? It doesn't have parental controls on it, so children could pick up your phone and browser porn sites. The list goes on. The only solution is a front end system like pattern lock.

By the way, I use pattern lock, and it's not a big deal to use it once you're used to it. I remove my phone from it's leather holder on my belt, hit the button, use my thumb to draw the pattern (I chose the pattern deliberately to be easy to do like this), and by the time I've got the phone into the normal position for use it's all done. It doesn't add any delay at all. The whole process takes half a second maybe.

Don't get me wrong - I completely see your point, and a log out would be nice - why not give people the option like you say? But I don't feel it's the best solution. It doesn't cover all things that could be private or need protected. I feel pattern lock is the only solution. Really, I feel everybody should use it, as it's the only thing protecting their phone if somebody does steal it, or want to snoop on it, and if that person has people around who would snoop, or might see something they shouldn't then it's their responsibility to prevent that from happening.