Received the expected request to verify student status, though all it required was me to select a country, select a university, enter my name and DoB, and my personal email. No actual confirmation at all.
Following this I had to resubscribe via the Google One student page, but my subscription got extended to 1 Oct 2026 now! Bonus.
Doesn't even require a student email anymore.
Deal's expired now, it was a few months back but terms said you'd have to verify in August. Didn't happen for ages, then today they asked me to verify but I put in a university that doesn't support SheerID single sign on verification and it went through automatically.
Why are you telling us about this?
On a separate subject, I recently signed up to a new energy provider. They requested ID verification. Just put in me license number and all done.
Bad security is just normal.
Originally, you had to show a physical drivers license with photo as ID. Even opening an online bank account meant going to the post office to show it.
But that was too much work, so now they treat it as if just knowing the number os proof of ID. like "mothers maiden name".
Even banks - it is so easy to defraud. They rely on catching you afterwards, i guess.
Google undertsands security better. e.g. authenticator, not SMS. But i doubt they care much about student ID.
They use SheerID or something which is usually really good, but certain universities don't have single sign on with them (which would otherwise require student ID login) and can slip through unverified.
Because the deal had hundreds of upvotes and people knew it was coming around August as per ToS, so notifying that it's occurring now but you can pass verification still. In case you're a bit slow, I'm not a student, nor is Australia one of the countries even eligible for the student free trial.
Where do you setup a student account?