Technology
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
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they want your phone number so they can track you.
how would they track you?
The reason they want a phone number is, that it's a relatively cheap way to ensure people not signing up bots galore, as getting phone numbers en masse is a lot harder than getting email accounts
phone numbers are typically tied to your name/identity, and phone companies can locate you using their towers and such. Giving a company your phone number is identical to giving a company your full legal name and address.
me giving, let's say, twitch my phone number gives them exactly 0 ways of tracking me in any way whatsoever
Source: worked for a mobile company
That's a pretty absurd take in 2023. Tracking and surveillance is rampant these days.
First part is not quite true, varies by country.
Second part is full on Olympic mental gymnastics
yeah, no idea why you're getting downvoted, it's clear why companies are so eagerly embracing and requiring 2FA -- if the benefits were only for the consumers, it wouldn't be mandated anywhere near this quickly. but when they know they get a real human phone tied to every account, that's a huge motivation
They don't require your phone number for 2FA. In fact they say you should use the other 2FA methods over SMS.