I recently saw a post on social media saying the author lost access to a suite of important accounts, even business accounts, because they had used Google Sign-in everywhere, and Google deactivated their account.

This is not the first time I've thought of or heard about such a situation. Accounts often get flagged for false reasons.

If you use your Google account to sign in to every other service, you're setting up a central point of failure because if you lose access to your Google, Apple or other social login account for any reason, you'll have a hard time restoring access to every other account.

Moreover, this setup isn't portable.

Say, you sign up to Google Workspace, set up a custom domain email, and use that Google account to log in to all other work accounts.

What happens when you decide you want to switch your email provider from Google to, say, Fastmail?

Every linked account now needs to be ported to a regular password login before you switch providers. Otherwise, you lose access.

I understand social logins can be convenient, but so is a password or passkey-based login if you use a password manager. But you get high portability and isolation.

Losing access to one account doesn't risk losing access to all other dependent ones.

This is something worth thinking about, if you're using social logins on most services you sign up for.

In Today's Cover: IPL or the Indian Premier League is one of the largest sporting events in India, and this season's final match is around the corner.

P.S.: Looq, an app I shared in the last issue, is now offering a 25% discount on a licence for Hulry Plus members.

By the way, have you tried this super handy app called OneTap?

Before you move on to the rest of this newsletter issue, here are some words from: