Does Project Gutenberg require a sign in or did I do something stupid?

October 6, 2022 4:17 PM

I was attempting to download a book from Project Gutenberg and it asked me to sign in to my google account and gave a zoom-like "needs access to your account" screen, which I unthinkingly signed in to. However, there is no log-in or privacy policy on PG's site and I have not been able to download the book.

Did I fall for some kind of scam? If so, what can I do to secure my google account? Change my password, obviously.

The book will not download to my computer or my email. The site appears legit, I went to it via google search, it has the lock image in the bar, etc.

I should have thought of this - I have never been asked for any sign-in on PG before, but so many things require a google sign-in now. What did I screw up?

posted by Frowner to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Best answer: It sounds a lot like you fell for a scam. The legit site appears to be https://www.gutenberg.org, and it's not IMPOSSIBLE that an ad blocker is hiding something, but there's nothing like that there. Archive.org (also legit and hosting PG content) does have the option to sign in with Google, so it's not unthinkable that this could be what you're seeing.

Change your password ASAP. That appears to sign everything except your current session out of Google, but then go to https://myaccount.google.com/security and give a hard look at the My Devices section and sign out anything that looks the least bit weird. I'd also suggest turning 2-step Verification while you're there - that adds an extra step involving your phone to sign in. But pay close attention to any warnings, since losing your phone can then prevent you from logging in.
posted by wotsac at 4:38 PM on October 6, 2022 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Perhaps you were on a legitimate Project Gutenberg page like this one and clicked on the "Send to Google Drive" button, which is just a Google Drive icon, in the second column from the right? In this case, you should see the book in your Google cloud storage at drive.google.com.

If you want to download the book to your computer instead, don’t click the Google Drive icon. Instead, click the text in the “Format” column, for example “EPUB (with images)” or “Kindle (with images),” depending on what program or device you want to use for reading it.

If this is not the site you used, it would be useful to know the address of the site that you did end up on.

If you are concerned you gave a malicious site access to your Google account, you can revoke it in the Google account settings.
posted by mbrubeck at 4:40 PM on October 6, 2022 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Okay, like a big overtired overcaffeinated dope I downloaded the book five times to my google drive, all the while wondering why it wasn't in my downloads. No more screen time for me until I have had some sleep!

I have marked both answers as best because the google security info in the first one is very helpful to have clearly laid out where I will remember to look for it if I need it again.
posted by Frowner at 4:46 PM on October 6, 2022 [18 favorites]

Two factor security on your Google account is a good idea anyway — if it’s the account linked to your bank, utilities, etc, hacking into it could let a person reset all your other passwords.
posted by hungrytiger at 10:54 PM on October 6, 2022