Starwood Lurker IV

Starting today you may notice we’ve made some updates to spg.com. To continually enhance the security of our members’ accounts, we’ve now added security questions within the spg.com “My Profile” section. These questions, along with the new ability to register your devices and browsers, will help us securely recognize and identify our members when they contact us.
For a limited time we are offering a one-time bonus of 150 Starpoints for members who complete the 4 new security questions before October 31st.

Fill out your security questions >

Security Promotion Terms

*Bonus offer: Member can earn a onetime bonus of 150 Starpoints after selecting and answering four (4) security questions on spg.com from October 8, 2015, through October 31, 2015 (the "promotion period").

This promotion is not transferable. Offer available to existing SPG members only (as of 10/8/15).

Bonus Starpoints will be credited to the member's account within 2–4 weeks of the close of the promotion on October 31, 2015.

This promotion may be combined with other Starpoints promotions in market during the same time; however, earnings are exclusive of each other.

All promotions are subject to the Starwood Preferred Guest® program terms and conditions, which are subject to change without notice and can be found at spg.com. Offer is applicable to individual members only and not to groups. Not responsible for omissions or typographical errors. Starwood reserves the right to discontinue this offer at any time. To update your communication preferences or learn about our privacy practices, view our Privacy Statement on spg.com/privacy, or access our privacy information line by calling 1-877-782-0071 in the U.S. and Canada or +353-21-4930474 in all other countries. Void where prohibited by law.


Best regards,

Alexandra Baker
Specialist, Social Media
Starwood Hotels and Resorts

[email protected]

Oxon Flyer

Done.

After completing this, it then says :

What does this mean ?

abk

I think maybe that the security question page could use some additional work before it goes live. Using chrome and answering questions was pretty much impossible for me.

edited to add: although it the website said I did not succeed and I did hit cancel instead of submit, I received an email saying I updated my questions.

gpia

Yikes. Had a tough time choosing four questions. I don't ski, i don't remember my first flight, i don't remember my first spg property (probably didn't even know what spg was back then)...if asked in a couple of weeks i will surely have forgotten 3-4 out of the 4 answers.

It doesn't always have to be the mother's maiden name but come on...

76toPHL

Agreed - the concept of this good, but the list of questions needs work. Some answers (favorite luggage brand?) would be so common that they could be guessed easily, and others could change over time (favorite hotel? favorite island?).

Starwood Lurker IV

Hi Oxon Flyer,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We are currently looking into this matter and appreciate your patience.

Hi abk,

We were made aware that Chrome for iOS is not functioning as expected, we apologize for the inconvenience and are working to fix it.

Best regards,

Alexandra Baker,
Specialist, Customer Service
Starwood Hotels and Resorts

[email protected]

hdatontodo

some people do these things something like this (not that I recommend it)

Favorite Food: SPG Food

Favorite Island: SPG Island

RogerD408

Whoever came up with using profiling questions apparently is not fully engaged with today's social media. Just about anything they could ask is probably out on the net as it is.

There are many "tricks" that can help choose an answer, one I've advised others to use is take the first or last digit of your account and use that word as your answer and maybe spell it backwards. If the question doesn't have that many words, return to the beginning and continue counting. Just pick something that is consistent and easy to remember.

I also hope SPG is making internal changes to improve security. Having telephone agents insisting they need your web password really needs to stop.
Just remember if someone really wants to get in, they will.

MSPeconomist

I could imagine going through the routine by phone of verifying your identity by answering the questions and having the phone agent paraphrase the questions when reading them aloud. Or SPG could edit the wording of the questions, but keep the same intent. Either situation would make word counts useless. I'd also be nervous about using the same answer or pattern for all of the questions.

BTW, is it possible to see the questions before logging in to answer them? Could someone please post the questions here? Thanks.

RogerD408

No system will ever be 100% fool proof, just like with locks. Even bio-metric systems have flaws. You want to make it difficult for them to break in. Serving up answers to questions that are readily available with simple searches is not secure at all.

Years ago an email made the rounds at work:

Starwood Lurker

My apologies, but that is against company policy and has been for a very long time now. There is nothing to be gained from even asking the question anyway as there is really no place to verify it.

Associates may continue to ask you for your verbal password when verifying account ownership, however. If your web pasword and verbal password are the same, I recommend changing one or the other as soon as possible.

If anyone asks you for your web password, get their user id and ask for a supervisor or send the issue to one of us.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

SanDiego1K

I could not find four questions to answer that I could be confident of knowing my response a month from now. It's a lot easier to answer questions that are factual and the response is not a function of my mood at the time.

eeebee

Wow, yeah, that's just a terrible list of questions.

CMK10

All the posters above me are not kidding. Favorite food to order from room service, really?

Oxon Flyer

Most of these questions demand multi-word answers and my concerns are around actually knowing the answer but not remembering the exact wording.

"Sheraton Grand Sukhumvit Bangkok Hotel Spa and Conference Centre" anyone ?