There is an easy way to opt-out. Stop using Facebook.
Do you know how I can tell that you didn't read the article?
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Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting
31–40 of 261 posts
Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting
#32This will make keeping your social media private during recruiting much much harder because rather than trying to search for your name on FB or your email, an interviewer can just search your listed contact number. Names are often not unique but phone numbers are. This matters because creating a new email account for recruiting is trivial, yet creating a new phone number for recruiting is not. Most phones are not dua…
I think VOIP has great untapped potential for this, having helped many people get vanity numbers with their name embedded. Once the job hunt is over, you can literally reject all calls, and build a caller ID blacklist of spammy companies and recruiters. Plus, numbers are 1/4th to 1/10th the cost of domains these days.
It works the other way too.
I keep blocking spammy numbers, and they keep creating new ones.
Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting
#33Just delete the phone number. You can use two factor authentication with OTP, SMS part is unnecessary.
The last time I tried to do this, about a year, it required a phone number to enable 2FA in the first place, and then it was possible to use OTP (with e.g. Google Authenticator). But once I got sucked into doing that, I couldn't delete the phone number to do only OTP without it also disabling 2FA.
Ugh, that sucks? I recently setup OTP-only 2FA, so apparently they fixed it.
Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting
#34This will make keeping your social media private during recruiting much much harder because rather than trying to search for your name on FB or your email, an interviewer can just search your listed contact number. Names are often not unique but phone numbers are. This matters because creating a new email account for recruiting is trivial, yet creating a new phone number for recruiting is not. Most phones are not dua…
There are also a non negligible number of people using an alias on facebook because they have good reason.
Apparently when a woman uses a pseudonym on facebook, it is not unlikely that it is because of a nasty/stalkerish ex that she would rather get away from.
I am actually in favor of a transparent society (a la david brin) , but we have to grown up a lot and handle such cases before the advantages that come with it can even be contemplated.
Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting
#35Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting
#36This will make keeping your social media private during recruiting much much harder because rather than trying to search for your name on FB or your email, an interviewer can just search your listed contact number. Names are often not unique but phone numbers are. This matters because creating a new email account for recruiting is trivial, yet creating a new phone number for recruiting is not. Most phones are not dua…
So get off public social networks. Problem solved.
This is such an unhelpful answer that it almost always worthless. The utility of social networks for contact is unmatched. One profile, ideally locked down how you see fit, that follows you for as long as you allow it to follow you. The response to this is usually that there nothing wrong with phone numbers or email addresses. Except there are.
Phone numbers change. This is less frequent now that we have mobile numbers, but they still change. Email addresses can also change as people move through different phases of life. Hell, email seems to be becoming unreliable as calling since unsubscribing from mailing lists you never joined doesn't seem to work any more.
I get it. Facebook is evil.
Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting
#37Just delete the phone number. You can use two factor authentication with OTP, SMS part is unnecessary.
> Just delete the phone number. I'd be surprised if Facebook ever deletes anything like this voluntarily. Most likely "deleting the number" just means hiding it and using it only of ad targeting and more subtle forms of profile matching.
They do in GDPR jurisdictions or they’re fucked.
Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting
#38Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> yet creating a new phone number for recruiting is not Doesn't Google Voice solve this problem? Or perhaps there are restrictions I don't know about. Of course, you still have to remember to create a burner phone number before giving out your contact info...
> Doesn't Google Voice solve this problem? Or perhaps there are restrictions I don't know about. Only sort of. I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook rejects Google Voices numbers and will only accept a real-live carrier numbers. It seems pretty easy to do, given how often my GV is rejected by sleezy services I'd like to give a throwaway (e.g. peoplesearch opt-outs). However, I'm not going to personally test this theory…
Let me surprise you then so you can stop making false speculations - you can use a GV number for Facebook 2FA.
Re: Facebook won’t let you opt out of its phone number ‘look up’ setting
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Just delete the phone number. I'd be surprised if Facebook ever deletes anything like this voluntarily. Most likely "deleting the number" just means hiding it and using it only of ad targeting and more subtle forms of profile matching.
They do in GDPR jurisdictions or they’re fucked.
Define fucked in this context.
They'll pay a fine, perhaps, but it's not like Mark Zuckerberg will be laying in a gutter pissing blood.
Regardless, you can't put the cat back in the bag. Bad actors will still have scrapped your number, or way too much personal identifying information, anyway.