Can you direct your teacher to take up her concerns with the school's IT department? Sounds like you have an established workaround by having the teacher email you from her personal account. In my view, the school is at fault here. That said I understand the inconvenience for everyone involved of the added friction of avoiding the modern surveilance state.
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2026
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Google Classroom is generally managed by the School's IT. Your setup is strange if they request public gmail account and not internal account in the school tenant.
- Your teacher is correct in not being happy. Giving their personal email to a student is... problematic
- Remember that your privacy is already breached when a 3rd party in the communication is using gmail
- Simply create a burner gmail account and do not use that for anything else than inside your school's google ecosystem
How do you get a burner account without a phone number?
Or any teacher should be perfectly capable of setting up a throwaway account for teaching work, just like some are recommending the student do. Every piece of friction with data fascists is a positive gain for everyone else. It's the people opting for low friction who are greasimg the rails for fascists of all stripes.
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That sounds super weird.
Does the school provide a Google account and email?
Even if they wanted it for authentication purposes, they'd have their own setup through Google. They wouldn't insist on you having one.
Is it just one teacher?
Ask another, see what they say.
If they confirm that's how it works, then just make a gmail account for school.
If not, then you can decide how much you want to push back and educate this one teacher.
This is a massive problem here too. Schools create these google accounts where teachers share work, etc. Its as if only google existed. How can we teach our kids to be openminded? I praise the suposedly young person that posted. Not all young people understand the threats of lockins.
There's a lot more to this than lock in and open mindedness. Are you going to cause friction to multiple other people in a collaborative situation? Are you going to do it for something as small as opinions about data collection companies?
Like, go ahead and question it. Go ahead and see if you can get by without it. But if it's making things significantly more difficult, are you personally capable of compromise? No one is making you sign your whole life and soul over to Google. You can make, use for this one class, and delete the account when you're done.
Are you going to do it for something as small as opinions about data collection companies?
That is not a small thing; that is a very large thing! Society is being destroyed in large part because of that!
Fuck compromising with people who support this shit. It is good to be as obstinate as possible in that situation!
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Agree. Also weird b/c G has a special Google for Education scheme for schools. Which the school would be tied into, and accounts would be made through that. G makes promises like it won't use the student's data for other purposes, no profiling, no ads, etc.
I still wouldn't be happy with having to use G as a student. For lots of reasons, like normalizing it so students will keep using G after they graduate. Even so, I believe G does make a good faith effort to adhere to their promises about not using student data for other purposes. But prob only if done through the official channels to create the acct.
Why does your school not have their own in house email for students?
Most schools in the US use gmail as their in house email, even if you get a purdue.edu address the interface and backend is all gmail.
Isn't outlook more common?
It could have been many moons ago. But about ten years ago, Google rolled out an irresistible deal for schools that included the workspace suite and unlimited storage. The schools took it up passionately and this is how we got students opening up a Google Docs browser tab that consumes 540 MB of RAM just to jot down a note two sentences long, and schools stuck with Google even as they aggressively whittle away at the promised 'unlimited' storage.
Guess I'm old. You could import it to gmail or outlook when I was in school, but everything was initially on our uni's own stuff.
But this was still when gmail was new.
Perhaps you could direct your teacher to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gmail#Criticism. This is just laziness and stupidity on the part of the school, IMNSHO.
EDIT: Although, to be fair, the school is probably getting this from Google for free—that's how they getcha.
Teacher likely doesn’t have the power to change the system and is just another user, so you’d just be tilting at a windmill. At best, preaching to the choir.
It would be like me telling you why I don’t like Gmail since you don’t seem to like it, either.
I found this article. I will try to create Gmail account in library, because through my Tor browser with VPN is asking phone nr. https://itsourcecode.com/blogs/how-to-create-a-gmail-account-without-a-phone-number/
You cannot create a gmail without a phone number these days. There used to be work aroubda where you sign up for a gmail via youtube or on a smart TV (don't advise the smart TV one), but I'm sure that doesn't work anymore.
I think if you don't want the gmail associated with your phone number you just have to buy a prepaid phone. If you live in a country where you can't pay for prepaids with cash and without an I'D, then I don't know. Welcome to the ponopticon I guess.
I can't vouch for those paid SMS services, they seem like a scam to me.
I've created gmail without a phone number. It seems to still be possible.
Careful though. Google may lock you out of your account at any time, not allowing you to login until you add a phone number.
How recently, what country are you on, and what method.
It was around last year.
Fresh firefox profile, US. Worked fine.
Maybe it doesn't work if I try it again.
Yeah its been a good year or two that you pretty much need a phone number.
If its a fresh residential IP that's not already been flagged, or you havent made too many gmail accounts already then it might still work. You might have to buy a new device completely and then it works. But I am doubtful, I don't have the resources to test all of that but from what it seems they're locking out all the methods.
Can you create one for me? I dgaf if you have access to it 🤣
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Participants, what is I use Googlemail@proton.me ? Hahahahahha I was trying to find a solution which looks like Gmail to pass them😅 anyway, I will be talking with teacher in next days and I will ask about why they need my Gmail only. And I will say that I don't even have one. Maybe it will be enough to tell that all necessary info I will get during physical meetings and there is no reason to email me.
Thanks, I hate it 🤣
While funny, your teacher and school aren't going to give you kudos for being a smartass.
I know... trying to find a way that everyone would be happy...
Isn't Proton owned by massive zionists?
Just give them your email and tell them it is gmail.
Tell them it your own custom domain in Google Workspace.
"Yeah I own protonmail.com"
google is very picky about this, but you can still create a google acc if using a "trusted" environment.
i had success on a relative's android phone (with preexisting google acc and valid usim) and school computer (windows chrome). they probably internally log ties to that machine being used to create acc, but at least it doesn't ask for phone number to auth and stuff. so, try using your school computer/tablet/etc for registration
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Where do you live? Does the school expect a personal Gmail account or do they have a Google Workspace account that they expect you to use?
Just get one. If you only use it for school, and the school mandates it, Google is going to know where you're going to school and nothing more. The school has chosen to share that information with them. There's nothing you can do about that.
Just make sure you only use it from a non-gmail client. And zip and password protect any files you send if you can.
To get Gmail I need phone nr. If I put phone nr,it's connected Gmail with phone nr. I don't want G know anything about me.
I'm not sure what phone NR is.
If you get Gmail, you can install Thunderbird on your phone, and connect to it like that. All Google would know is that you're connecting to that email from that IP. And if you're concerned about that, maybe get a VPN.
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You can create a junk gmail account which forwards school emails to another email account. Since school is fully Google they already have those emails. Or wonder why they are fully submitted to Google.
Is it possible to make Gmail account without phone nr verification? If yes, I could do it.
And junk Gmail is it regular account used only for school or some kind of other type of Gmail?
What school is this? This isn't like the Hollywood Upstairs Medical Academy is it?
If it's that you have to use a Google account, you should still be able to register your own email account as a Google account.
Sorry, I don't get how to do it. I have Proton email. How fo register it as Google account?
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