Weird Stuff Involving Google Groups: How Do I Fix It?

[ElectroTheDevolian]

So I noticed through my dashboard that I was in something called Google Groups a year back, and quickly noticed that, while I never agreed to using it, it's on my account regardless. Even worse is that I noticed that I was already in 3 groups that I never asked to be in. Apparently the settings default to letting literally anyone add you to them without your permission (because that logic is pure genius coming from Google's privacy standards). Can't opt out of it either, which is just great. I'm pretty sure that one of the default settings is letting anyone see your email when you're in a group, which is just-- Why?

2 of the groups I could leave, one was in the My Groups section of the site, and the other one was hiding in subscriptions, but the third one seems to be impossible to leave. I double checked everything and scraped through every forum I could to see how I could get rid of this, but to my surprise there's nothing. That or it's extremely hard to find because apparently the use of the site is so ancient and no one except a few things use it anymore. The strangest part is that if I try to see it via the dashboard by clicking the name (which you probably shouldn't do but I did anyway, and then got smart and did it via private window), it throws me into someone's or something's account login screen, usually with with a business end for the email listing. It has to be some sort of bot or botnet doing it. Best I could do is just turn off all the settings that allow anything, and did the same with my work account just in case one day it happens to that.

Now here's what doesn't make sense and makes me upset: The fact that I check my dashboard after a few months due to privacy concerns, and guess what I see? Suddenly, I'm magically in 2 more groups! Where did they come from? How did I even get in them? All my settings are turned off to where they're not supposed to do that, how is that possible? And, just like the one I couldn't leave a while back that's been painfully etched on my account like some sort of stain, now there's 3. I don't understand. The one that shows up when I see it in the dashboard, because apparently you can't see all 3 when you expand it, says it's some verification thing. It clearly isn't though due to the "business" email listing. At first I thought maybe it was something to do with my browser, or my phone, but even that doesn't make any sense due to the time it says the most recent which was somehow yesterday, when it was a time I was completely asleep. I don't have Groups or anything installed on my phone either, so I'm at a complete loss of words when it comes to figuring out how these still managed to add me to things.

And then there's this new thing called Blogger, which to me just looks like Google Groups 2, and big surprise it said I had one new thing of some sorts for it. Never asked for it, but it's there. It's nothing critical, but I didn't want it either way. Funny part is when I looked at the site for it, it was just like "Hey! Do the thing! This is yours now you joined the site you can't ever opt-out. Have fun with this being stuck there and making things more cluttered." I was screaming internally the whole time I was doing it, because the moment I got to the settings it's almost a solid replica to Groups. Had to turn everything off and private it, same with the work account. Not happy

I really hope someone has this same issue and knows a way to fix this because it is driving me mad, because I have no clue how to get rid of these groups and stop them from adding me for good. Is there some way to opt out of both Groups and Blogger, and just to be safe the whole plethora of other weird junk Google has that I never asked to be a part of in the first place? Is there just a reliable and solid way of contacting Google about it in the first place so they'll respond? It drives me mad knowing that I have no control over certain things that I never asked for. If anyone knows any of this and can relate, please tell me how to fix it. It's driving me mad. Maybe double check your dashboards too and see if you've got this thing on there if you've never used it before, same with Blogger. I don't know why Google does this.

[David H. Lipman]

There are Usenet News Groups ( NNTP )  and some Web Forums that act as a Front-End to Usenet that will show up in Google Groups as Google Groups is Google's HTTP/HTTPS front-end to Usenet. 

There is no way to "fix" it.