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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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
First part is not quite true, varies by country.
Second part is full on Olympic mental gymnastics
I can hear the tinfoil hat from here
That's a pretty absurd take in 2023. Tracking and surveillance is rampant these days.
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