why social logins are a bad idea - dev.to please keep your native login enabled
Tags: security, decentralize, sociallogin, devto
Published: 2020-11-15 18:19:02

---
title: why social logins are a bad idea - dev.to please keep your native login enabled
published: true
description: again dev.to removed/disabled it's native login option (via email). just a few words why social logins are a bad idea
tags: #security #decentralize #sociallogin #devto
//cover_image: https://direct_url_to_image.jpg
---
today i wanted to log into dev.to and to a little story about emco ping monitor and i wasn't able to login with my email. 
sadly this again happened to me.

i [asked for the feature to login by gitlab and email in july 2018][2]. near end of october of this year i noticed that it was possible to login by email. :hoooooraaaay: i immediately added it to my account and disconnected github.

my next step would have been to contact dev.to to remove my still stored github email address but luckily it was no priority for me.

at 4th of november i wanted to login to dev.to but the email login form was simply gone. my github account email was still in the database of dev.to so i was able to reconnect the gitlab account and was able to login. 

andy zhao wrote in the [ticket][2] that it was by accident and that the login is back online. this time i kept my github account connected.

as i wrote above today i wanted to log into dev.to to write a some notes. email login -> gone.

why?!

it is crazy, the login by email part should always be first citizen on all sites. with a native password reset function and so on.

social login is nice to have but it is dangerous. it centralizes the net and your are dependent on a multi million dollar company (and their "AI" algorithms) to be "ok" with you. if they are suddenly not ok with you, because of what you say or what you wrote, your race, your age, your health, your sexual orientation, your religion, whatever, they simply lock you out. 
without telling you the exact reason and most of the time without any way to recover your account if you don't get support from the masses or some person with influence. i you don't have one of those you are doomed.

"reallife" (haven't verified them by myself) examples why it is simply a bad idea:

---

> My Facebook account was just banned due to "Community Standards". I created the account just for my Oculus Quest 2 and don't post anything on it

[mud_juggler][4]

> Awesome, so for the Oculus 2 all you have to do is have a functioning Facebook account and when you need any tech support, a Twitter account to complain publicly and finally get things fixed. 2020 technology....

[phishstik][3]

> Roughley lost data including emails, photos, documents and diagrams that he had developed for his work. "My account and all its data is gone," he said.

quote from the [article][5] written by Chris Stokel-Walker from businessinsider.com

---

so gurjeet singh sums it up quite perfect in is [article][6]

> "Never Use Google to Sign-In"

this is a quote which i can simply sign. i myself have a problem with such a big company which simply denys me a service which they advertised to my without giving me a reason but thats another story.

please dev.to team keep your email login enabled and don't disable it again. treat it as first citizen and help to decentralize the web.


cover image would have been by [Enrico Hänel][7] if dev.to wouldn't require me to switch to another browser to use the upload button. sigh the web is breaking apart. the internet explorer only from the 90ies is now a chrom (OS) only (why the hell my browser needs access to so many os functions and keeps loosing such simple functions as a regular upload form). looks like there is another story...


[1]: https://github.com/forem/forem/issues/242
[2]: https://github.com/forem/forem/issues/11269
[3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/jqh1bg/i_now_have_an_oculus_paperweight/gbnuxtx/
[4]: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/jqh1bg/i_now_have_an_oculus_paperweight/
[5]: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-users-locked-out-after-years-2020-10
[6]: https://gurjeet.singh.im/blog/never-use-google-to-sign-in
[7]: https://www.pexels.com/photo/light-man-people-building-5369188/