Google: Good Privacy Starts with Good Account Creation

It's much easier for a site to be privacy-friendly when it doesn't collect more information than it needs to operate its services. Keep in mind that many Google services don't even require an account (or cookies for that matter) to perform their basic functions. But when you do need or want an account (or another account - you can have multiple Google accounts and multiple Gmail addresses), Google is a good example of privacy-friendly account creation:

https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount

Note that Google doesn't ask for very much information:

+ Current email address (this becomes your login name)
+ Password (at least 8 characters)
+ Location (your country, chosen from a menu)
+ Birthday (mm/dd/yy)

Followed by a word verification to thwart bots, and a button to click to agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. That's it.

Note that there is NO mention of Birthday in the Terms of Service. most privacy-savvy users already know there is no requirement to provide a real date of birth to most commercial services.

A basic Google Account can be extended with Gmail. In this case, Google asks for an additional (minimal) set of information):

+ First Name
+ Last Name
+ Desired Login Name (this becomes your Gmail address @gmail.com)
+ Security Question & Answer (choose a question from the menu, or make up your own)
+ OPTIONAL Recovery email address

Again followed by a word verification to thwart bots, and a button to click to agree to the Terms of Service, the Gmail Program Policy, and the Privacy Policy. That's it.

Again note that there is NO mention of Name (or Birthday) in the Terms of Service or the Gmail Program Policy. You can use your real name or a pseudonym. Google doesn't care.

From a privacy perspective, the freedom to choose what information you provide to a service to create your account is absolutely critical. Your privacy risk is inherently greater with services that require more, and more specific, personal information.